Thailand, Philippines Drop in Ranking in HSBC Survey of Expats

As other Southeast Asian countries saw their positions unchanged or up in a survey of expats, Thailand and the Philippines went in the opposition direction.

This year, Thailand ranked 21st in HSBC’s Expat Explorer survey, down six places from a year ago.

The kingdom obtained high scores from expats in the categories of property and health but they were offset by the low scores on the quality of schools and safety. The country also scored low on politics and job security, while safety and economic confidence were in the median.

The survey asked 22,318 expats around the globe in March and April this year and the results on 31 countries were released on Wednesday. Six Southeast Asian countries — Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines — were in the league. In fact, Singapore ranked first as the host nation favored by expats.

The rankings of Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam were up from last year.

Thailand was not alone on the losing side — the Philippines’ position also dropped to 28 from 17.

League Table (based on 2018 results)