In its first Environment & Sustainability Report, InterNations, the world’s largest expat community, identifies the best and worst countries for the sustainable expat.
The results, which are based on the Expat Insider 2020 survey, reveal that Finland, Sweden, Norway, Austria, and Switzerland excel at offering a sustainable environment.
At the other end of the ranking, India, Kuwait, Egypt, Indonesia, and Vietnam are rated the worst countries for the sustainable expat. New Zealand ranks 7th out of 60 destinations.
The Environment & Sustainability Ranking is based on eight individual factors, such as expats’ satisfaction with the availability of green goods and services and the air quality.
It also includes their perception of how much the government supports policies to protect the environment and how interested the local population is when it comes to environmental issues.
Ranking 7th out of 60 countries, New Zealand lands among the global top 10 countries in the Environment & Sustainability Ranking.
This is especially due to its great performance in the Policies & People subcategory (4th): 85 per cent of the expats in New Zealand agree that the government supports policies to protect the environment (vs. 55 per cent globally), and 79 per cent agree the population is very interested in environmental issues (vs. 48 per cent globally).
“New Zealand values the environment,” says a US American expat. After Sweden (1st), Denmark (2nd), and Finland (3rd), New Zealand is voted the best non-Nordic country in this regard.
The country also features in the top 10 worldwide for the Quality of Environment subcategory (6th), with the natural environment (3rd) as the highest-ranking factor: 96 per cent of the survey participants are satisfied with it (vs. 82 per cent globally).
“The environment is the best,” says a Taiwanese expat.
Even though water and sanitation (17th) affect the overall ranking of this subcategory slightly negatively, five in six expats (83 per cent) are still satisfied with this factor (vs. 72 per cent globally) — 49 per cent even very much so (vs. 34 per cent globally).
What is more, New Zealand ranks 12th for Products & Utilities, with 79 per cent of expats satisfied with the availability of green goods and services (vs. 63 per cent globally), as well as the energy supply (vs. 62% per cent globally).
