The UK and Europe have been revealed as among the least favourable destinations for expat finances, according to HSBC Offshore’s latest Expat Explorer survey.

The UK, Belgium, Spain, France, Germany and the Netherlands were the worst performing locations for overall wealth – with lower annual salaries, reduced levels of disposable income and fewer expats owning luxury items.

Meanwhile, the wealth gap between expats living in the East and West is widening, with expats living in the Eurozone being left behind, said Lisa Wood, head of customer propositions at HSBC Offshore.

“Not surprisingly, a number of expats in these economies [the UK and Eurozone] are actively looking to return home,” said Wood.

Mainland Europe dominates the bottom five places in the league table in terms of wealth, measured as the proportion of expats earning under $60,000. However, this can largely be explained by expats choosing European countries as retirement destinations.

At the other end of the scale, expats living in Russia are the wealthiest in the world – with over one-third of those surveyed there earning over $250,000. Both Singapore and Bermuda also score highly on this count, at 32 per cent and 27 per cent respectively.  

Expat Explorer surveyed over 4,100 expats from over 100 countries.