With a vibrant mix of deep cultural roots, a great selection of restaurants, and the hospitality offered by Malaysians, Kuala Lumpur is a great place to live, especially for expats. Our country’s national capital has now been proudly listed in a recent global survey as no.8 worldwide for those who have settled abroad.  

InterNations, the largest global community for people who live and work abroad—released its annual Expat City Ranking, a report on the best places to live in the world in 2023. 

Spanish cities Málaga, Alicante, and Valencia took the top three spots in that order and the country had a total of five cities in the top 20. KL trailed behind four cities in Spain, Mexico City as well as Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah of the UAE to make it no.8 overall and no.3 in Asia. Our neighbour in the north, Bangkok came in at a close no.9 while our southern neighbour Singapore was far behind at no.28 *smirks*.

Meanwhile, coming in at the bottom at no.49 was Milan, Italy where expats cited the low quality of life and poor work conditions as issues that they faced.  

On top of that, Malaysia was ranked as the fourth-best country in the world for expats to live, behind Mexico, Spain, and Panama. The study also highlighted Malaysia's significant improvement in quality of life rankings, advancing from no.44 out of 52 destinations in 2022 to no.29 out of 53 this year. 

49 cities were listed based on how expats feel about living and working abroad in the last year. The extensive survey included the participation of 12,065 expats worldwide which represent 177 nationalities living in 181 countries or territories. Factors taken into consideration included quality of life, ease of settling in, career prospects, personal finance, housing, and more. Check out their Expat City Ranking Methodology here. 

The World’s 20 Best Cities to Live 

1. Malaga, Spain 
2. Alicante, Spain 
3. Valencia, Spain 
4. Ras Al Khaimah 
5. Abu Dhabi, UAE 
6. Madrid, Spain 
7. Mexico City, Mexico 
8. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 
9. Bangkok, Thailand 
10. Muscat, Oman 
11. Dubai, UAE 
12. Lisbon, Portugal 
13. Barcelona, Spain 
14. Amsterdam, the Netherlands 
15. Nairobi, Kenya 
16. Zurich, Switzerland 
17. Athens, Greece 
18. Stockholm, Sweden 
19. Luxembourg City, Luxembourg 
20. The Hague, the Netherlands 

Read the list here along with comments from expats.  

Image credit: internations.org