Expats vote Australia and PHL as two of best countries for raising family

A recent survey conducted by InterNations ranked Australia number 7th and the Philippines number 17th in the list of best countries for raising a family.

According to the survey, the Philippines is also one of the best in the world for quality education and being a place that has a friendly attitude towards children.

“Accessible education is priority for the Duterte administration and the DepEd was given the highest increase of 31 percent in this year’s budget (PHP3.35 trillion),” Abella said in a press briefing.

Finland topped the survey with “no expat parent had anything negative to say about their children’s health, children’s safety or children’s well-being in Finland.”

The expats, 70 percent of them, also picked Finland for having “excellent” quality education.

Czech Republic made a huge leap from 14th to 2nd place after 74 percent of the expats agreed that education there is “easy to afford, although it did not reach the top spot due to the quality of education.”

The countries which have fallen the most in ranking are Bahrain – now ranked 22nd from 8th the previous year; Spain – down from 12th place last year to 26th this year and Denmark, which has fallen from 11th last year to come in at 23rd.

Austria went down to fourth place from first place the year before while Sweden was down from third to fifth place.

Brazil sits in the 45th (last) position with Saudi Arabia in the 44th.

Survey methodology

“In 2016, the Family Life Index consists of 45 countries, up from 41 last year. In order to be included, each country had to have at least 31 respondents who are raising dependent children abroad. The index ranks countries according to childcare and education options in general, their availability, their costs, the quality of education, and overall family well-being. This year, the children’s health and safety factor was split into two individual factors in the Family Well-Being subcategory,” according to InterNations.

The top 20 countries in the list are: Finland, Czech Republic, Israel, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Australia, Taiwan, Belgium, Germany, France, Poland, Netherlands, Luxembourg, South Africa, Singapore, Mexico, South Korea and Thailand.

Founded in 2007, InterNations is the world’s largest network for expatriates of people who live and work abroad.