Dubai topped the chart for the most attractive international city to live in, leaving behind megapolices such as Paris, New York and London. The new ranking was compiled after surveying 835 members of the INSEAD Alumni Association France.
A new survey released by Challenges and the INSEAD Alumni Association France ranks the top international cities in terms of private and professional life. Conducted for the first time, the survey aimed at identifying the place where INSEAD alumni found the best career opportunities and standards of living. Unlike previous studies, this one polled people who mostly had worked in global cities around the world. Surprisingly, the 835 alumni from 35 different nationalities chose Dubai as their number one city for expats. The participants ranked the 15 cities against 30 different criteria and evaluated their economic dynamism (quality of labor, access to funding and more), quality of life (air quality, sports and cultural facilities, etc.), cost of living (property prices, costs for dining and entertainment), and the overall attractiveness of the cities (access to technology, young talent, and so on).
Dubai ranked first in economic dynamism, while its overall attractiveness was third in the world. The Gulf emirate also ranked fourth in terms of quality of life and cost of living. It was followed by Amsterdam, which had the best results in the quality of life and overall attractiveness. Madrid, the other big surprise in the list besides Dubai, came fifth and ranked first in cost of living. The researchers say both cities managed to attract expats, despite the dips in their economies in recent years.
Top 15 cities to live and work according to the INSEAD Alumni study:
- Dubai
- Amsterdam
- Toronto
- Singapore
- Madrid
- Hong Kong
- New York
- Tokyo
- Shanghai
- London
- Paris
- Milan
- Mumbai
- Moscow
- Sao Paolo
The results of the study, however, are much different from previous poll, which ranked the best countries for expats to live and work. The No.1 country was Ecuador, followed by Luxembourg, Mexico, Switzerland and the United States. The ranking was compiled by expatriate-focused social network InterNations, which polled nearly 14,000 expats from 169 countries online.
