As the atlas shrunk due to the internet and the subsequent globalization, the opportunity to spend part of your life abroad in a foreign and strange country became more appealing than ever before, especially for the millennial generation – the one who grew up with it.
And at the same time, the millennials are the generation that moved to the cities, slowly draining the rural areas. And with the large expectations towards several criterias, it is interesting to see what the millennials actually think of the cities they moved to, especially in terms of the expat life.
That’s why the apartment search engine Nestpick made a survey among the millennials using it, asking them to rank several aspects of the cities they live in, such as nightlife, employment rate, beer and access to contraception.
Surprisingly, the millennials overall aren’t too fond of Southeast Asia. Ranking by total score, the first Asian city to appear is Kuala Lumpur, which resides at a 62nd place (though still ranking above New York City). It ranks very high in terms of employment and tourism, but the general attitude towards gender equality and LGBT rights drags the city way down the ladder.
In general things like employment rate is where the Asian countries rank high. Bangkok is the definitive number one with a perfect score in both employment and tourism but is halted by things such as gender equality and immigration tolerance.
And those things seem to be what is dragging Asia down in general in the survey. Both Beijing, Bangkok and Hong Kong can blame the society’s attitude towards equality when being upset that the city didn’t rank higher.
But even though the Scandinavian countries rank high in those aspects, things in the economic area such as housing, accessibility and – surprisingly for anyone who’s been to Copenhagen – beer ranking holds the overall ranking rather low. Apparently the millennials doesn’t like Carlsberg.
The survey can be further studied here.
