Expatriates have voted Nairobi as the best African city to work in citing friendly residents and fair weather, according to the Expat City Ranking 2019.
In the survey conducted by InterNations, the largest community for expatriates, Nairobi was ranked the 45th best city to work in globally. Nairobi beat other popular African cities including South Africa’s Johannesburg, which ranked 59th globally and Cape Town (65th) as well as Nigeria’s Lagos (79th).
Nairobi was rated 47th out of 72 cities in a similar survey carried out last year, meaning it has improved by two places over that period. InterNations noted that respondents picked Nairobi for being easy to settle in, ranking third worldwide behind Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia (first) and Manama in Bahrain (second).
InterNations, which has more than 3.5 million members, surveyed over 20,000 respondents in 82 cities around the globe in the 2019 ranking. The survey examined five areas of expatriate life including quality of urban towns, getting settled, work-life balance, finance, housing and cost of living.
“About 82 percent describe the locals [Nairobi residents] as friendly and 62 percent find it easy to make friends,” the report says.
“The local climate and weather has been a top highlight for expat life, with 91 percent of expats rating this factor positively compared to 59 percent globally”.
