The 9 countries where expats work the fewest hours

Flickr/ The Cork Chronicles

It is September – the month of grey clouds, finished holidays, and email backlogs.

If the thought of working abroad has crossed your mind then you could do worse than look at a comprehensive report by InterNations, an expat networking website.

The group surveyed 14,000 people who had left their country to work somewhere else to find out where people are happiest.

The survey accounted for different factors, such as ease of settling in, quality of life, and cost of living to decide the rankings of countries.

It also surveyed how many hours expats found themselves doing in an average week. 

Here are the 9 destinations where you might spend the shortest amount of time in the office.

9. New Zealand: 42.2 hours per week. New Zealand comes out on top in terms of work-life balance alone, beating Denmark and Luxembourg, who are in second and third place, respectively.

8. Luxembourg: 41.8 hours per week. Luxembourg ranks number one for a stable economy, safe jobs, and a healthy work-life balance.

7. Norway: 41.7 hours per week. Along with having short work hours, Norway tops the list for the best work/life balance.

6. Ireland: 41.5 hours per week. The hours in Ireland might be short but so is the pay. One in four expats in Ireland says they are not satisfied with their financial situation overall.

5. Cyprus: 41.5 hours per week. Cyprus has risen from 41st to 28th spot in the happiness survey mostly due to gains in the leisure options subcategory.

4. Canada: 41.1 hours per week. With a short work week, Canada comes 12th in the world for quality of life for expats.

3. Finland: 41.1 hours per week. Finland comes top for quality of family life overall.

2. France: 41.0 hours per week. France is a popular destination, with 78% of the
expats saying they are overall satisfied with life abroad in general.

1. Denmark: 39.0 hours per week. While it might have the shortest work week in the world, expats in Denmark do not think the country is easy to settle into. Denmark is third from the bottom in this category.

Read more stories on Business Insider, Malaysian edition of the world’s fastest-growing business and technology news website.