It’s official: Expats in Thailand are deliriously happy!

BANGKOK: — A Thaivisa survey has revealed that expats living in Thailand are extremely happy. And not just that – the great majority feel that it is a safe place to live and work.

The results seems to be a slap in the face for some Thaivisa forum moaners who sound as though they are abjectly miserable and love to claim that the country has already gone to the dogs!

Nothing could be further from the truth, it appears.

The average Thaivisa member in Thailand most likely lives in Bangkok or Pattaya and shows the following characteristics: he or she is inordinately happy, owns property and a car or bike, spends a fair bit of time online and is getting on a bit in years but has health insurance. Oh, and perhaps another reason for that happiness – the average working person is likely to earn in excess of 100,000 baht a month, especially if they are in Pattaya.

And last but not least – they love Thaivisa and its news coverage and moderators to bits!

The far reaching 2016 media survey that was conducted recently had 884 respondents. Some 85% of the respondents were living in Thailand itself with half of the rest from the USA, UK and Australia with the other half from other countries.

A whopping near 80% professed themselves either happy or blissful – though this was a shade down from the 87% happy rating given in the last survey in 2014 before the military took over.

Around 70% are happy, 9% are blissful and only 5% said they were unhappy and just 2% claimed to be miserable.

Some 69% said that Thailand was a safe country with Bangkok in particular registering high in this regard. People in Pattaya and the Eastern Seaboard were not quite so sure but still registered high on feeling secure. Age was not a big factor on feeling secure.

Again this seems to suggest that forum posters who complain about crime and safety in the kingdom are not representative of overall membership feeling.

Overall a total of 48% own a car and 38% a motorcycle with Pattaya topping the car ownership stats with 59%. This high level of driving involvement may go some way to explain the large number of people who comment about driving standards and issues regarding death and injury on the nation’s roads and highways.

Some 40% of people own property in the Kingdom. When Pattaya is taken alone that figure rises to 54% of repliers owning property. On the flip side only 25% of people under 40 years of age own property in Thailand while 31% of all people own nothing at all.

More than half (54%) of Pattayans in employment are earning 100,000 baht plus a month.

Of the responders about a third live in Bangkok and 15% on the Eastern Seaboard. There were few under 30 years of age with 80% over 40 and a third between 61 and 70 years of age. Sixty four per cent were 51 and over.

Online activity and preferences was also very revealing with Thaivisa itself singled out for particular praise in its news coverage, features and moderation.

Some 83% rated the Thaivisa news coverage as at least good with half exactly plumping for very good to excellent. The moderators were deemed to be fair on two out of three occasions, perhaps too strict in one in ten cases and too lenient 6% of the time.

Almost half of all people used Facebook or Twitter “many times per day” though almost a quarter said they didn’t use social media at all.

Interestingly for the holiday resort famous for its nightlife, Pattaya expats seemed to be sleeping more in the morning with more social media activity in the evening.

Some 70% of respondents said they used the Thaivisa website, app and newsletter services every day with another twenty per cent indicating ‘often’. A large proportion of people still got news from the Bangkok Post (65%) with Khaosod, Coconuts, Pattaya One and The Nation trailing some way behind. Coconuts was popular amongst the young in the capital.

Pattaya expats kept a close eye on Pattaya One as well as TV’s Inspire, Pattaya Channel TV and Pattaya People.

Generally under 50s liked Coconuts, Khaosod, Phuket News and Inspire.

Finally expats in Thailand seem to be quite concerned about their health with 57% stating that they have health insurance and 11% saying that they plan to get it. Only a third said they didn’t have health insurance.

Source: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/930881-its-official-expats-in-thailand-are-deliriously-happy/?utm_source=newsletter-20160711-0708&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news