An expat, presumably happy because he can get wifi at the top of the mountain. Source: Internations.org
An extensive survey of expatriates by InterNations, a networking website for expats, shows that foreigners look on living in Indonesia quite favorably, with the country getting ranked in the top 20 in terms of most desirable destinations and 8th in terms of personal happiness.
The report, called Expat Insider 2014, is based upon detailed surveys filled out by nearly 14,000 expats all over the world. The report reveals some surprisingly favorable feelings about Indonesia amongst expats.
For example, Indonesia ranked #20 in the “Top Expat Destinations” category, beating out countries such as Vietnam (#26), Thailand (#22) and even the U.K. (#21). Above Indonesia are predictable results such as Singapore (#6) and the United States (#5), but #1 Ecuador is fairly surprising as well.
The “Top Expat Destinations” is the overarching category, taking into account the results of other sub-categories like “Quality of Life. In the “Personal Happiness” rankings, Indonesia comes in at #8, above South Korea (#9), New Zealand (#17) and the United States (#19).
While members of the U.S. Department of State get a 25-30% hazard pay bonus for being posted to Indonesia, the country got #9 in the InterNation report’s “Ease of Setting” category, ahead of #10 Australia.
So it looks like life is pretty good for most expats in Indonesia – now that the secret is out, is an invasion of bules from economically stricken western countries far behind?
