Malta has just been named the seventh best place in the world to live if you’re an expat, but it dropped five places in just one year.

The results were presented by the annual Expat Insider survey, one of the largest surveys worldwide. The survey sees some 12,500 respondents representing 166 nationalities and living in 188 countries answering InterNations’ questions, and looks at more than 40 individual factors.

Neighbouring Italy also made the highlight reel… but as one of the bottom 10 countries, sitting at 60th place. Portugal and Spain are the only two other European countries to have made it on the top 10 list, at 5th and 10th place. This means that, as far as Europe is concerned, Malta managed to snatch a very commendable 2nd place as far as this year’s best European places for expats go, though it lost the top position to Portugal.

This year’s top places turned out to be surprising improvers. 

Bahrain, for example, just about made the top 20 in 2016 with 19th place, but jumped all the way to the top spot for this year. Runner-up Costa Rica also saw massive improvements, with the Central American country jumping more than 15 places in certain sectors of the survey like Family Life and Finding Friends.

USA and the United Kingdom, two of the biggest expat sources, placed towards the bottom half of the list, at 43rd and 54th place respectively. In fact, the UK just about missed being in the bottom for only two places. 

Last year, Malta ranked second in the same Expat Insider survey. 

So what happened this year?

1. Our biggest drop was in Personal Finance & Cost of Living

In 2016, Malta had jumped radically from 42nd to 6th position in the Personal Finance & Cost of Living index, despite the fact that one-third of working expats in Malta had said their income was generally lower than back home. This year, Malta was rated in the bottom 10 for improving income, since 2017 saw the islands drop from last year’s 6th position to a surprising 57th… just under Czech Republic and the Philippines.

2. Malta’s Peacefulness and Political Stability index also suffered

Interestingly enough, Malta experienced another decline in the Peacefulness and Political Stability sectors. Last year, we ranked fifth worldwide. This year, Malta didn’t even make the top 20. To perhaps no one’s surprise, 2016 and 2017 saw Malta take the first position worldwide in the survey’s Climate and Weather sector.

3. The Quality of Life index saw Malta drop more than 10 places

Last year, Malta was rated 6th in Quality of Life. This year’s we just about made the top 20 at 19th. This saw 2016’s great results like 1st for leisure, 2nd for happiness, and 5th for safety all drop. Malta is now 8th for leisure, 7th for happiness, and 21st for security. The only real constant was the very low average for transport, which went from 44th in 2016 to 45th this time round.  

The survey produced a library of results, and presented them all in very detailed and interesting infographics. One such infographic is a “psychographic positioning” chart of Europe, where expats were asked how they see their local neighbours. Malta placed squarely between “constant & traditional” and “emotional & welcome”… thankfully leaning slightly closer to the latter.

You can read more about the results of the survey on the Expat Insider’s website.

Featured Photo by elena_icc

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David Grech Urpani

Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).