Oman scores heavily on several fronts such as safety, environment quality and ease of settling in a survey, on expatriate satisfaction, conducted by a leading international agency.
According to InterNations, ExpatInsider survey, in the GCC, Oman is the second-best performer in overall expatriate satisfaction with 79 per cent after Bahrain (90 per cent).
Oman scores highly (16) when it comes to the ease of settling in for the expatriates and personal finance (22) where it is almost on par with Bahrain (22).
Oman is the GCC States’ standout performer for the environment quality, with more than eight in ten (81 per cent) rating the environmental quality well.
“A 61 per cent of expatriates in Oman give the political stability the best possible rating, while an almost unrivalled 94 per cent of respondents attest to the peacefulness of the country.
“It is a peaceful and easygoing country, with tremendous natural beauty and super friendly people,” the report quoted an Indian expatriate.
When it comes to learning and/or getting by without the local language, four of the six states place inside the top 15: Bahrain (1st), the UAE (6th), Qatar (13th), and Oman (14th).
As per the InterNations Expat Insider Survey for 2019, Oman (ranked 32) is the third-best destinations for the expatriates in the GCC after Bahrain (ranked seven) and Qatar (ranked 18). UAE is ranked 40, Kuwait 64 while Saudi Arabia does not figure in the top 70.
According to the survey, Safety & Security is the Gulf States’ strongest subcategory, The UAE (9th) and Oman (10th) both rank in the top 10.
In all six Gulf States, finances were among the three most important reasons for expats to move there. However, only four out of the six perform moderately well in the Personal Finance Index, while the gap between the better performing countries and the region’s poorest performers remains large.
“Bahrain and Oman lead the GCC States, ranking in 22nd and 24th place out of 68 countries. Qatar (30th) and Saudi Arabia (31st) do not fare too much worse, and certainly much better than Kuwait, which comes in 50th,” the report said.
The average age of expats in Oman is 41.8 years and nearly 61 per cent of them are males.
Oman has the lowest average age among the expatriates (40.5) years.
Nearly 77 per cent of expatriates in Saudi Arabia are males compared to only 54 per cent in Oman and 51 per cent in Bahrain.
At 17 per cent Indians form the top expatriate nationality in the GCC states. With 37 per cent Oman has the largest percentage of Indian expatriate community, compared to Saudi Arabia and UAE.
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