Nairobi is the best city in Africa for expatriates, according to a new survey
According to the latest city global ranking, Kenya’s capital has been ranked the best city to work in Africa and 12th globally.
The 2021 Expat City Ranking revealed Nairobi moved up 50 places from last year’s ranking after receiving excellent results in the Getting Settled and Finding Houses Index.
According to the index ranking, expatriates ranked Nairobi as the best country in Africa and sixth globally in the finance and housing index based on overall satisfaction with their financial situation, disposable income and affordability, and ease of finding houses.
In total, four African cities Cape Town (41), Johannesburg (55) and Cairo (52), were featured in the ranking by InterNations, the world’s largest expat community with over 4millionn members. This years ranking surveyed 12,420 respondents in 57 cities.
“All three African cities featured rank among the bottom 10 in the quality of urban living and urban work life indices — except for Nairobi, which lands in 34th place in the latter index. Nairobi also outperforms the other cities when it comes to the ease of getting settled, as well as finances and housing,” the survey stated.
General friendliness of local residents and friendliness towards foreign residents
The Expat City Ranking 2021 also showed that Nairobi ranks first in Africa for both the general friendliness of its local residents and friendliness towards foreign residents in particular.
“Expats in Nairobi agree 74 per cent are happy with their social life,” the survey noted.
Easy to get settled, find affordable housing
With a below-average result in the Quality of Urban Living Index (50th), Nairobi is rated poorly for its public transportation system and the quality of medical care.
However, 82 per cent of the expats face no difficulty finding housing, and 48 per cent consider housing affordable compared. But the city performs below the global average in the Finance Subcategory as 19 per cent are dissatisfied with their financial situation, compared to nine per cent of expats living in Nairobi.
“Nairobi’s performance in the urban work-life index (34th) is an interesting mix: the city ranks 49th worldwide for the state of the local economy (30 per cent unhappy against 19 per cent globally) but 9th for overall job satisfaction 73 per cent happy against 68 per cent globally,” the survey stated.
