Portugal is the Most Hospitable Country in the World

Portugal ranks first in the InterNations 2018, the largest global information network of people who live and work abroad.

For the first time, Portugal conquers the first place in the ranking of the most welcoming countries in the world, going up nine places since 2016, according to InterNations 2018, cited in Forbes.

The site analyzed data and comments supplied by almost 13.000 people from 188 countries that work or live abroad to reveal the most welcoming ones in a list that extends to 65 countries.

Almost four in every four people working or living in Portugal, from abroad, describe it as welcoming (79%) and about three in ten (29%) state that locals make up most of their social circles, against the 19% global average, according to data from InterNations 2018, cited in Forbes.

Thus, according to the inquiry, 94% underlines Portugal’s “friendly attitude”, 58% refers the “ease in making local friends” and 47% tends to want to take refuge in the country forever. According to the annual inquiry, cited in Forbes, the people who live or work in Portugal from abroad consider the Portuguese to be people who take care of each other.

Thus Portugal appears at the top of the list, followed by Taiwan (2nd) with 86% of a “hospitable attitude”; Cambodia (3rd) with 73% of “ease in making local friends”; Bahrain (4th) with 86% of people considering it to be welcoming and Costa Rica (5th) with 48% of the possibility that people who come from abroad to work or live in the country stay forever.

This year, the inquiry cited by Forbes, placed the USA in 36th, which means it’s a country less welcoming than countries like Uganda (18th), Romania (19th), Indonesia (21st), Israel (24th), and Kazakhstan (28th). In 2016, the USA placed in 19th, which means that since then it has become a less hospitable country for people who live or work from abroad.

On the other hand, the United Kingdom places in 56th. Foreigners consider the English to be distant (42%) and reserved (58%), which makes it difficult to make local friends in the country, according to the inquiry, these results might be connected to “Brexit”.

Ranking as the least hospitable country for the fourth year in a row is Kuwait. Almost half the people who work or live in the country from abroad rate the local population’s attitude negatively (46%), a figure three times higher than the global average (16%). At the bottom of the list are also Austria and Switzerland.