México: the Best Country to Make Friends In

Expats often struggle to make friends abroad, and their social relationships seem to affect their personal happiness.

• Mexico, Bahrain, Serbia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Uganda, Colombia, Taiwan, Israel, and Portugal are the top countries for making friends for expats.
• Expats in Mexico not only find it the easiest place in the world to make friends, they are also happiest with their life in general!
• Kuwait, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Norway, Finland, Austria, and Estonia are the countries where it is the hardest to make friends as an expat.

Finding friends is often a major challenge for people moving abroad: only 57% of expats worldwide find it easy to make new friends abroad, and an even lower share of 45% say that making friends with local people in their new country of residence is easy. These findings are part of the latest Expat Insider survey, one of the most extensive studies about living and working abroad, annually conducted by InterNations, the world’s largest expat community. Based on the data of more than 18,000 respondents, InterNations now compiled a ranking of the destinations where it is easiest and hardest to make friends as an expat.

The survey reveals that Mexico is the best country for making friends abroad, followed by Bahrain, Serbia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Uganda, Colombia, Taiwan, Israel, and Portugal. The results highlight the positive impact that a good social network can have on people moving abroad: expats living in nine out of the top 10 countries not only find it easy to make friends, they are also substantially happier with their life than the global average. Only Serbia does not follow this pattern. In fact, with 92% of expats saying that they are happy with their life, expats living in Mexico are the happiest in the world.

At the other end of the scale, expats in Kuwait (68th out of 68 countries), Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Norway, Finland, Austria, and Estonia (59th) find it hardest to make friends in their respective host countries. Similarly, those living in nine out of these countries are also below-average happy with their life in general — only expats in Estonia exceed the global average.

Top 10 Countries for Making Friends

1.   Mexico

• 82% find it easy to make new friends
• 77% find it easy to make local friends
• 92% are happy with their life in general

After consistently ranking in the top 3 since 2014, Mexico comes first again for making friends abroad in 2018. Over four in five expats in the country (82%) find it easy to make new friends (vs. 57% globally), while 77% express that making local friends is easy, too (vs. 45% globally). The ease of forming friendships could be due to the friendly attitude towards expats: 90% rate this factor positively (vs. 66% globally). “I love the local people, their culture, and their openness,” states an expat from the USA. Maybe this is also what makes expats in Mexico happiest in the world: 92% of respondents are happy with their life in general (vs. 76% globally), and 40% state that they could not be any happier (vs. 21% globally).

2.   Bahrain

• 77% find it easy to make new friends
• 68% find it easy to make local friends
• 88% are happy with their life in general

Bahrain rose from 6th to 2nd place out of 68 countries in relation to finding friends abroad within one year. Now, 77% of expats find it easy to make new friends (vs. 57% globally), and 68% say that making local friends is no problem either (vs. 45% globally). This might be due to the general friendliness of the local population, as 92% of expats rate this factor positively. Exactly three in five (60%) even find the Bahrainis extremely friendly, which is double the global average (30%). The lack of a language barrier might also help with making friends: while more than one-third (34%) find it hard to learn the local language (vs. 45% globally), an impressive 94% agree that it is easy to live in Bahrain without speaking it (vs. 46% globally). “There is no need for the local language,” says an expat from India.

3.   Serbia

• 73% find it easy to make new friends
• 79% find it easy to make local friends
• 71% are happy with their life in general

Featuring in the Expat Insider survey for the first time, Serbia comes in 3rd out of 68 countries for finding friends abroad. The majority of expats (86%) finds the local attitude towards foreign residents friendly (vs. 66% globally), with one respondent from Romania describing the local population as “open, friendly, and helpful”. In fact, 79% of expats find making local friends easy (vs. 45% globally), and almost three-quarters (73%) are also happy with the ease of making new friends in general (vs. 57% globally). It might be no surprise then that close to half the expats in Serbia (47%) state they are mainly friends with local residents, which is the highest share in the world together with Brazil.

The next highest ranking countries were:

4. Costa Rica

5.   Ecuador

6.   Uganda

7.   Colombia

8.   Taiwan

9.   Israel

10.   Portugal

This information was released by InterNations, a site that connects expats abroad.