If you're aiming to make new friends, a recent study suggests that Mumbai and Delhi might not be the best places to start. This revelation comes from an investigation conducted by Preply, an online tutoring and language learning platform.
The study dubbed "The Community Spirit Index: The World's Friendliest Cities For Non-Natives," evaluated 53 cities globally on their level of friendliness to non-natives. Unfortunately, no Indian cities found their way onto the "friendly" list.
However, Delhi and Mumbai did find themselves in the less desirable "unfriendly" category.
Six main aspects were factored into the index to classify the world's most welcoming and unfriendly cities. These parameters included return visitor rates, safety indices, LGBTQ+ equality, overall happiness, ease of communication via a common language, and the friendliness of the local staff.
The unfriendly list was topped by Accra in Ghana, which received a paltry friendliness score of 3.12 out of 10. Marrakech, Morocco, came in second with a score of 3.69. Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur, Rio de Janeiro, and Delhi were next on the list of least-friendly cities.
Conversely, Toronto and Sydney were hailed as the most amiable cities for non-natives in 2023, each boasting an overall friendliness score of 7.97 out of 10.
Edinburgh and Manchester bagged the second and third spots respectively in terms of congeniality towards non-natives.
Edinburgh scored a 7.78 overall friendliness rating and a 68.92 safety index rating out of a possible 100. Manchester earned a score of 7.72 out of 10 and was noted for its friendly environment, with nearly 15% of reviews including the word 'friendly.'
The study also highlighted the cities with the highest number of people seeking advice on how to make friends. São Paulo topped the list with an impressive 23,160 annual searches for "how to make friends," trailed by New York and Paris.
Within India, the survey findings show that only 12% of people perceived Mumbai as a friendly city, while the rate was slightly better at 17% for Delhi.
In terms of staff friendliness, Mumbai earned a rating of 3.91%, with Delhi slightly behind at 3.27%. Mumbai received a happiness score of 3.78, while Delhi scored a tad higher at 4.01.
