The Swiss City Rated Best For Expats To Move To In 2024 By New Ranking

If your New Year’s resolution was to finally take the plunge and move abroad, this report might help you make the daunting choice of where to live.

Each year, global mobility expert ECA International (ECA) publishes a Location Ratings Report for countries around the world. It includes a ranking of destinations most liveable for expats, looking at factors like housing, health services and friendliness.

Here are the European cities that came out as the best destinations for expats to move to in 2024.

What Is The Most Liveable City For Expats In Europe?

Bern in Switzerland remains the most liveable city in Europe for expats according to the latest annual ECA report. This is the third year running that the riverside city has claimed the number one spot.

“With top facilities, minimal air pollution and low crime rates, Bern is a very attractive city for expatriates and their families,” said Neil Ashman, Senior Location Ratings Analyst at ECA.

ECA’s Location Ratings evaluate cities around the world to form an assessment of the overall quality of living for expats in over 500 locations. The ranking is based on a variety of liveability factors including availability of health services; housing and utilities; isolation; access to a social network and recreational and leisure facilities; infrastructure; climate; personal safety; socio-political tensions and air quality.

“Swiss, Dutch and Scandinavian cities fill out the top 10 most liveable cities,” said Ashman. Previous number one Copenhagen now finds itself in fifth place. “Copenhagen is still a great city for expatriates, it remains very liveable but has seen shortages of suitable housing in recent times which has seen it drop in the ranking slightly,” Ashman added.

Dublin is one of only three cities to drop out of the top 10 compared to ten years ago. The Irish capital now sits in 11th position, compared to 7th place a decade ago. In a similar vein to Copenhagen, this is largely down to a common issue associated with cities which become more popular as destinations for expats—reduced availability of suitable housing.

Housing availability issues have also resulted in Luxembourg and Dusseldorf dropping out of the top 10 compared to 2013. In Dusseldorf’s case this has been compounded by an increased Socio-Political Tensions score, owing to the rising threat from terrorist attacks in Germany in the last decade.

Edinburgh remains the UK’s most liveable destination, sitting in 17th place overall. Another Scottish city, Aberdeen, also features highly (24th), though Glasgow in 47th place scores less well owing to higher crime levels.

London remains relatively stable in the rankings in 37th place compared to 39th five years ago and 38th ten years ago. “London remains a very attractive city for expats, with excellent facilities, a comprehensive public transport network and recreational options,” said Ashman.

Which Are The Worst Countries In Europe For Expats?

Unsurprisingly, locations experiencing major crises find themselves considerably lower in the rankings. This is certainly the case for Kyiv, Moscow and St Petersburg, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. Moscow had actually improved from 155th to 146th in the rankings between 2013 and 2018 but now finds itself down in 189th position. Kyiv is 218th, down from 137th, when it was above Moscow, ten years ago.