Expat Survey 2016

I received the following report from Internations, which is pretty accurate since it's feedback from real life expats rather than from some number churning economist.

The best destinations for Expats 2016.

Here's the summary for Norway, the higher the ranking the better.

• Quality of Life - 30 out of 67.  Okay but not the best.  This has been broken down into
• Leisure - 63 out of 67.  Oslo is pretty boring I admit, but if you like nature on the other hand, you would love it.
• Happiness - 63 out of 67.  Almost dead last.  I'm surprised by this, I thought it would be a bit higher, but apparently not.  You're just not going to be happy moving here.
• Travel and Transport - 31 out of 67.  Not the best, but adequate.
• Health and Wellbeing - 17 out of 67.
• Safety and Security - 7 out of 67.
• Ease of Settling in - 63 out of 67.  Yep it's hard to settle down here.
• Working Abroad - 8 out of 67.
• Family Life - 6 out of 45.  Not surprisingly this is the category that Norway is highest ranked in, which is true from my experience.  Most Norwegians working abroad come back to Norway if they have children to take advantage of the welfare system and basically get by whilst not doing much work.
• Personal finance - 49 out of 67.  Basically don't expect to get rich here.
• Cost of living - 64 out of 67.  As the previous point.

Conclusion

So let's lay it down once and for all, Norway according to expats who actually live here, is not the paradise that it seems.  Maybe this will improve in the 2017 survey (or maybe not).

Find the full report here.