Internationals name Germany the fourth-worst country to move to

International people living in Germany have named the country the fourth-worst place to move when it comes to housing, admin, learning the language and digital life.

The Expat Insider Survey 2025

The 12th Expat Insider Survey has been released by the German-based company InterNations. This year’s survey asked 10.085 respondents of 172 nationalities to rate expat life in 46 different countries according to five different scoring categories:

• Quality of Life (travel, environment and climate, leisure options, healthcare and security)
• Ease of Settling In (local friendliness, finding friends, culture and welcome)
• Working Abroad (career prospects, salaries and job security, work culture and satisfaction)
• Personal Finance
• Expat Essentials (digital life, admin topics, housing and language)
• How happy are you with your life abroad in general?

Among respondents, the most common country of residence was Germany, and the most common nationalities were US American, British and Indian. Respondents rated Panama, Colombia, Mexico, Thailand, and Vietnam as being in the top five spots for internationals to live.

Germany is a nightmare for expat essentials

In the overall ranking, with lower rankings indicating better performance and higher rankings indicating worse performance, Germany placed 42nd out of 46 countries in 2025. 

The Expat Insider Survey is always fairly damning for Germany. This year, the country didn’t even perform particularly well in categories where it usually does better, such as job security and salaries.

But as with the surveys of the past four years, it was the “Expat Essentials” category which sent Germany to the bottom of the overall list. In the Expat Essentials category, Germany ranked 46th out of 46 countries. When it comes to digital life, the low ranking was attributed to the lack of administrative services available online, generally poor internet connection, and the prevalence of cash.

“Close to two-thirds (65 percent) rate the German bureaucracy negatively (vs. 41 percent globally) — around a third (32 percent) even give it the worst possible rating (vs. 16 percent),” the survey results explained.

Respondents stated that one of the most challenging aspects of living in Germany was finding a place to live in the first place. Over three in five respondents in Germany (63 percent) say it’s difficult to find housing (vs. 36 percent globally).

Another essential where internationals feel they are at a loss is with language. “Two-thirds (67 percent) find German difficult to learn, compared to 41 percent of all respondents who say the same about their host country’s local language,” the survey summary explained. 58 percent said they were worried about learning German before they arrived in the country.

Expat Essentials wasn’t the only category in which Germany performed badly. In the “Ease of Settling In” category, Germany was in the bottom 10 in nearly every single subcategory, for example, local friendliness, finding friends, culture and welcome.

Finally, 40 percent of respondents living in Germany didn’t know if they were planning to leave, compared to just 19 percent who plan to stay far into the future and 18 percent who want to stay forever.

The most attractive expat countries in the world 2025

According to InterNations, the top 10 countries around the world for expats in 2025 are as follows:

1. Panama
2. Colombia
3. Mexico
4. Thailand
5. Vietnam
6. China
7. UAE
8. Indonesia
9. Spain
10. Malaysia

For more information on the survey, including a detailed breakdown of the scores, visit the InterNations website.