Best Cities To Live In The Netherlands
The Dutch cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague are represented in this year's "Expat City Ranking". The list compiled by InterNations includes 82 cities around the world according to different areas of expat life.
The best and worst cities for expats
The Expat City Ranking is a list of 82 cities ranked according to InterNation's annual Expat Insider survey. 20,000 expatriates from 187 different countries took part in the survey, which asked them to rate different aspects of urban life. These subcategories were divided into four different factors: quality of life in the city, settlement, urban working life and finance and housing.
The survey also included an "Index of Local Cost of Living" in their rankings. However, this did not contribute to the overall ranking of the cities in order to avoid that financial aspects were overweighted. Each city must have had a sample of at least 50 participants in order to be listed. A "degree of luck" was also included in the ranking.
Three Dutch cities in the Expat City Ranking
Three of the 82 cities in the 2019 Expat City Ranking come from the Netherlands. Of the three cities, The Hague (9th) was the only Dutch city to be in the top 10. It was actually the only city in the top 30, with Rotterdam (32nd) and Amsterdam (48th) further down the list.
The Hague
With 9th place, The Hague is the best rated Dutch city on the list. The Hague stands out in the financial and housing index from Rotterdam and Amsterdam and ranks 24th (Rotterdam is 51st and Amsterdam 68th). Participants rated the city high for urban working life (13th), but many complained about local career opportunities.
The Hague ranked well in terms of quality of urban life (27th place), but many people were critical of the local climate and weather, where it was in the last ten (78th place). Nevertheless, the participants (81%) enjoyed the environment in the city and achieved a happiness level of 78%, which was higher than in the other two Dutch cities.
Rotterdam
Rotterdam achieved a slightly above-average result in 32nd place. The participants were particularly satisfied with the city's public transport (21st) and voted it the best in the Netherlands. The city also has a high priority in urban working life (16th) and scores particularly well in the subcategory job security (10th).
Amsterdam
Amsterdam, the Dutch city with the lowest place on the list at number 48, performs particularly badly when it comes to local cost of living (56th) and finance and housing (68th). This is mainly due to how difficult it is to find a house and the unaffordable rental prices. In addition, the participants complained about health care in Amsterdam. Amsterdam got the lowest score in Dutch cities when it came to settling down. People found it difficult to make friends (51%) and did not feel at home (29%).
Expats were particularly happy with the city's work-life balance. Amsterdam took 9th place in this subcategory. In terms of local career opportunities, the city performed much better than The Hague and Rotterdam (15th).
Expat City Ranking: Top 10 cities
The top 10 cities in the Expat City Ranking are as follows:
Taipei
Kuala Lumpur
Ho Chi Minh City
Singapore
Montreal
Lisbon
Barcelona
Oslo
The Hague
Basel
