Top Countries for Raising Children Abroad in 2012

The Expat Explorer 2012 survey results are out. This year 5399 expats were questioned from 97 countries of the world. You can download the full report here.

To discover which country is the best to raise your child in the survey looked at these 3 main factors:

1. Childcare (safety of children, standard of education, quality of childcare and overall cost of raising children)
2. Health and wellbeing (spending time outdoors, spending time with parents, playing sports, playing video games, watching TV, children eat less junk food now)
3. Integration (settled in quicker than parents, enjoying their lives, are learning new languages, missing home and friends, social integration)

Scores from each factor are weighted to arrive at an overall Raising Children Abroad score and overall rank. The weighting applied is as follows: childcare - 33,3%, Health & wellbeing - 33,3% and Integration 33,3%.

Now here are the top countries for raising children abroad according to this survey: 

1. Canada
2. The Netherlands
3. Hong Kong
4. Australia
5. United Arab Emirates
6. USA
7. Saudia Arabia
8. United Kingdom
9. Kuwait

Apparently Hong Kong is the safest place to raise a child. 91% Of the expat parents in Hong Kong said that the safety of their children had improved after relocation.

Australia and Canada are on the top of the list for active expat families. Not only were the children more active in sports in these 2 countries but even some of the parents became more active in sports.

The Middle East provides a more challenging climate for expat families. Social integration is one of the areas were expat parents reported that their children had most difficulty. The expat children in the Middle East spent more time watching TV and playing video games. 

If you want to compare the results with last years outcome, check my post on The Top 10 Countries for Raising Children Abroad in 2011. Of course I am proud that the Netherlands is still at the top of the list on second place. I am a little surprised that France was in first place last year but that it does not feature in the top 9 countries this year. I wonder why.

What are your experiences with raising kids abroad? Do they match the results of this survey? Do you have tips for other parents? Please share it with us. Thanks.

Related Posts:

• My 10 advantages of growing up in another culture 
• My 10 disadvantages of growing up in another culture
• Cultural identity confusion and third culture kids
• Third culture kid speaking "I'm not from anywhere"
• Best country for kids: Canada Huffington Post
• Canada the best country to raise your kids: on She Knows website

Third culture kids and exciting new things!

Art: someone did something new....spotted in Holland

There are some things that I really enjoy doing and one of those things is: "doing something new!" The past 6 months has been full of new things. I will just name a few:

1. Started this blog: DrieCulturen
2. Made a twitter account. You can follow me @DrieCulturen
3. Tweeted more than a thousand tweets.
4. Discovered that there are actually people who want to follow me.
5. Planted potatoes in our own garden for the first time in my life.
6. Harvested and ate my homegrown potatoes. That was so exciting!
7. Made strawberry jam from homegrown strawberries for the first time in my life.

Some time ago I wrote a Dutch blog post on this same topic. The post is called "Nieuwe dingen doen". In my post about the disadvantages of growing up in another culture I mentioned that "restlessness" is one of the disadvantages of having had lots of change during childhood. As a result of the restless I want change or new things. Some third culture kids say they want to move house every 2 years. They feel an "itch", they just have to move. A long time ago I decided that I want to grow some roots where I am living now, so I will not move but just stay here even when I feel the "itch". Life is all about making choices!

Now to tell you about the most exciting new thing. I have recently been asked to write a guest post for Expat Explorer. The great news is that today my post has been published on their blog. So I want to invite you all to hop over to their blog and read "Where are you from?" It's a real honour to have been asked to write about third culture kids for their blog. Thank you!

I have been writing on this blog for just over 5 months now. Just for fun I will list a couple of my favourite blog posts on my blog. By the way I really enjoy writing on this blog.

• My 10 advantages of growing up in another culture
• Third culture kids learning to be themselves
• Third culture kids going to university
• Cultural identity confusion and third culture kids
• Libby Stephens explains what third culture kids are
• New book: Emotional Resilience and the Expat Child by Julia Simens
• Global Nomads on the move
• Global Nomads no the move part 2

Have you done anything new recently? Do you have an urge to do new things? How do you handle the "itch" (the extreme desire to keep moving)? I would love some new comments on the blog so please few free and let me know what you are thinking. Thanks.