An expatriate professional migrant is someone who voluntarily lives outside their country in order to take up a job opportunity and a better or at the very least a similar, quality of life with the intention returning to their home country and do not therefore consider themselves to be local in their host country.

Hardship refers to the relative difference an expatriate and their family are likely to experience and the relative impact on their lifestyle when moving between different locations.

Xpatulator's hardship ranking system measures the relative quality of living in each locations, and assesses the level of difficulty that will be experienced in adapting to each location.

• Economic Factors: Such as poverty levels and level of service provision
• Political Factors: Such as freedom/tolerance towards different points of view / lifestyle
• Religious Factors: Such as freedom/tolerance towards different religions
• Public Service Factors: Such as provision of water, electricity, sanitation, work permits etc
• Environment/Climate Factors: Such as extreme weather
• Personal Safety Factors: Such as personal safety / level of crime
• Health Factors: Such as prevalence of disease and health standards
• Education Factors: Such as education standards, prevalence of international schools
• Transportation Factors: Such as prevalence of public transport, fuel and road safety.

In assessing how much to pay an expatriate, it is important to take into account the relative hardship, in terms of quality of living conditions between locations, and assesses the relative level of difficulty that will be experienced in adapting to a new location.

The ratings for hardship are classified into four main groups, the first being those with no real hardship, while the three categories with hardship can be described as follows:

1) Some Hardship (20% Hardship Premium)

2) High degree of Hardship (30% Hardship Premium)

3) Extreme Hardship (40% Hardship Premium).

The Xpatulator.com High and Extreme Hardship Premium Locations (30%-40% Premium) as at August 2016:
Abidjan in Cote D'Ivoire 40%
Abuja in Nigeria 30%
Accra in Ghana 20%
Adana in Turkey 30%
Addis Ababa in Ethiopia 40%
Ahmedabad in India 30%
Alexandria in Egypt 40%
Algiers in Algeria 30%
Almaty in Kazakhstan 40%
Amman in Jordan 30%
Ankara in Turkey 30%
Antananarivo in Madagascar 40%
Apia in Samoa 30%
Ashgabat in Turkmenistan 30%
Asmara in Eritrea 40%
Baghdad in Iraq 40%
Baku in Azerbaijan 30%
Bali in Indonesia 30%
Bamako in Mali 40%
Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei 30%
Bandung in Indonesia 30%
Bangalore in India 30%
Bangkok in Thailand 30%
Bangui in Central African Republic 40%
Banjul in Gambia 40%
Basse-Terre in Guadeloupe 30%
Beijing in China 30%
Beirut in Lebanon 30%
Belgrade in Serbia 40%
Belmopan in Belize 30%
Benghazi in Libya 40%
Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan 40%
Bissau in Guinea-Bissau 40%
Bogota in Colombia 30%
Bratislava in Slovakia 30%
Brazzaville in Congo 40%
Bucharest in Romania 30%
Bujumbura in Burundi 40%
Bursa in Turkey 30%
Cairo in Egypt 40%
Calcutta in India 30%
Caracas in Venezuela 40%
Casablanca in Morocco 30%
Cayenne in French Guiana 30%
Chennai in India 30%
Chisinau in Moldova 30%
Colombo in Sri Lanka 30%
Conakry in Guinea 40%
Cotonou in Benin 40%
Dakar in Senegal 40%
Dalian in China 30%
Damascus in Syria 40%
Dammam in Saudi Arabia 30%
Dar es Salaam in Tanzania 30%
Dhaka in Bangladesh 30%
Dili in Timor-Leste 40%
Djibouti in Djibouti 40%
Douala in Cameroon 30%
Dushanbe in Tajikistan 40%
Fez in Morocco 30%
Freetown in Sierra Leone 40%
Funafuti in Tuvalu 30%
Georgetown in Guyana 30%
Gizeh in Egypt 40%
Guadalajara in Mexico 30%
Guangzhou in China 30%
Guatemala City in Guatemala 40%
Hagatna in Guam 30%
Hanoi in Vietnam 30%
Harare in Zimbabwe 40%
Havana in Cuba 40%
Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam 30%
Honiara in Solomon Islands 30%
Hyderabad in India 30%
Ibadan in Nigeria 30%
Islamabad in Pakistan 40%
Istanbul in Turkey 30%
Izmir in Turkey 30%
Jaipur in India 30%
Jakarta in Indonesia 30%
Jamestown in Saint Helena 30%
Jeddah in Saudi Arabia 30%
Jerusalem in Israel 30%
Kabul in Afghanistan 40%
Kaliningrad in Russia 30%
Kampala in Uganda 30%
Kano in Nigeria 30%
Kanpur in India 30%
Karachi in Pakistan 40%
Kathmandu in Nepal 30%
Kazan in Russia 30%
Khartoum in Sudan 40%
Kiev in Ukraine 40%
Kigali in Rwanda 40%
Kinshasa in Democratic Republic of the Congo 40%
Konya in Turkey 30%
Kuwait City in Kuwait 30%
La Paz in Bolivia 40%
Lagos in Nigeria 30%
Lahore in Pakistan 40%
Leon in Mexico 30%
Libreville in Gabon 40%
Lilongwe in Malawi 30%
Lima in Peru 30%
Ljubljana in Slovenia 30%
Lome in Togo 40%
Luanda in Angola 30%
Lucknow in India 30%
Lusaka in Zambia 30%
Majuro in Marshall Islands 30%
Malabo in Equatorial Guinea 40%
Managua in Nicaragua 40%
Manila in Philippines 30%
Maputo in Mozambique 30%
Marrakech in Morocco 30%
Maseru in Lesotho 30%
Mbabane in Swaziland 30%
Mecca in Saudi Arabia 30%
Medan in Indonesia 30%
Medinah in Saudi Arabia 30%
Melekeok in Palau 40%
Mersin in Turkey 30%
Mexico City in Mexico 30%
Minsk in Belarus 30%
Mogadishu in Somalia 40%
Mombasa in Kenya 30%
Monrovia in Liberia 40%
Monterrey in Mexico 30%
Moroni in Comoros 30%
Moscow in Russia 30%
Mumbai in India 30%
Nairobi in Kenya 30%
N'Djamena in Chad 40%
New Delhi in India 30%
Niamey in Niger 40%
Nizhny Novgorod in Russia 30%
Nouakchott in Mauritania 40%
Noumea in New Caledonia 30%
Novosibirsk in Russia 30%
Nuku'Alofa in Tonga 40%
Nuuk in Greenland 30%
Omsk in Russia 30%
Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso 40%
Palikir in Micronesia 30%
Papeete in French Polynesia 30%
Paramaribo in Suriname 30%
Phnom Penh in Cambodia 30%
Podgorica in Montenegro 30%
Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea 40%
Port Vila in Vanuatu 30%
Port-au-Prince in Haiti 40%
Praia in Cape Verde 30%
Pristina in Kosovo 40%
Puebla in Mexico 30%
Pune in India 30%
Pyongyang in Democratic Republic of Korea 40%
Quito in Ecuador 30%
Rabat in Morocco 30%
Reykjavik in Iceland 30%
Riga in Latvia 30%
Riyadh in Saudi Arabia 30%
Roseau in Dominica 40%
Saipan in Northern Mariana Islands 40%
Samara in Russia 30%
San Jose in Costa Rica 30%
San Juan in Puerto Rico 30%
San Salvador in El Salvador 40%
Sanaa in Yemen 40%
Santiago in Chile 30%
Santo Domingo in Dominican Republic 40%
Sao Tome in Sao Tome and Principe 30%
Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina 30%
Shanghai in China 30%
Shenzhen in China 30%
Skopje in Macedonia 30%
Sofia in Bulgaria 30%
South Tarawa in Kiribati 30%
St. Petersburg in Russia 30%
Stanley in Falkland Islands 30%
Surabaya in Indonesia 30%
Surat in India 30%
Suva in Fiji 30%
Tallinn in Estonia 40%
Tashkent in Uzbekistan 30%
Tbilisi in Republic of Georgia 30%
Tegucigalpa in Honduras 40%
Tehran in Iran 40%
Thimphu in Bhutan 30%
Tianjin in China 30%
Tijuana in Mexico 30%
Tirana in Albania 40%
Toluca in Mexico 30%
Tripoli in Libya 40%
Tunis in Tunisia 30%
Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia 40%
Vientiane in Laos 40%
Vilnius in Lithuania 30%
Vladivostok in Russia 30%
West Bank in Palestinian Territories 40%
Windhoek in Namibia 30%
Wuhan in China 30%
Yangon in Myanmar 30%
Yaounde in Cameroon 30%
Yaren in Nauru 30%
Yekaterinburg in Russia 30%
Yerevan in Armenia 40%
Zagreb in Croatia 30%
Zanzibar in Tanzania 30%

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