Estonia tops new Digital Life report

Estonia tops the Digital Life Abroad: an Expat Insider Topical Report conducted by InterNations, a social network for expats to gauge the perception of digital lives enjoyed by those living in a foreign country.

“Over the last few years, it has become impossible to imagine a world without digital communication, especially for globally mobile people: staying in touch with loved ones at home, mastering the administrative challenges in a new country, or working remotely as a digital nomad — the digital needs of expats are extremely diverse,” reads the report.

Estonia leads the pack and performs better than the global average, with the majority of respondents feeling that the country could not be better. “The country is rated best in the world for both unrestricted access to online services (e.g. social media) and the availability of administrative or government services online. In fact, 96 per cent of expats judge the access to online services favourably (vs. 80 per cent globally), with 86 per cent saying it could not be any better (vs. 58 per cent globally),” according to the report.

In addition, access to government and administrative services online according respondents is at almost 100 per cent: “Another 94 per cent are impressed with the availability of administrative or government services online (vs. 55 per cent globally), with 70 per cent giving it the best possible rating (vs. 23 per cent globally). These excellent results help the country compensate its low rankings in terms of available leisure options (51st) and travel opportunities (65th): all in all, Estonia comes in a good 21st place out of 68 countries for its general quality of life,” explains the report.

While Estonia tops the list globally, other countries from the emerging Europe region placed quite well compared to countries like France (35th), Germany (53rd) or even Italy (57th): Romania 24th, Czech Republic 29th, Poland 32nd, Hungary 36th, Bulgaria 43rd and Serbia 44th.