The world's friendliest cities were ranked and only one Canadian spot made the list

Canada's reputation for being friendly might not be that true! 🇨🇦

aerial view on the city skyline in montreal along the st lawrence river

City skyline in Montreal.

Senior Writer

A new ranking of the friendliest cities in the world is out now.

Even though this country has a reputation for being friendly, only one Canadian city made the global list.

Recently, Time Out revealed which places are the most "welcoming and friendly."

This new friendliest cities in the world ranking is based on the opinions of locals in those cities.

Earlier this year, Time Out polled 18,500 residents of cities around the world and asked them about their hometowns.

The survey included questions about happiness, arts and culture, green spaces and more.

Locals in these cities were also asked how likely they were to describe their hometown as "welcoming and friendly."

Time Out used that data to rank the 20 most amiable destinations in the world.

Montreal is the only Canadian city on the list and one of just three North American locations to be named as the world's friendliest places.

Even though it didn't crack the top 10 or the top 15, it still did better than every other city in Canada!

These are the friendliest cities in the world, based on the percentage of locals who would describe their hometown as friendly:

  1. Porto, Portugal
  2. Bilbao, Spain
  3. Medellin, Colombia
  4. Cape Town, South Africa
  5. Lagos, Nigeria
  6. Brighton, UK
  7. Madrid, Spain
  8. Lisbon, Portugal
  9. Chicago, USA
  10. Belfast, UK
  11. Hanoi, Vietnam
  12. New Orleans, USA
  13. Valencia, Spain
  14. Glasgow, UK
  15. Abu Dhabi, UAE
  16. Chiang Mai, Thailand
  17. Montreal, Canada
  18. Seville, Spain
  19. Brisbane, Australia
  20. Dubai, UAE

Looking at the top city in this ranking, 85% of locals in Porto told Time Out that their city is "welcoming and friendly."

That's much higher than the second and third-friendliest places in the world.

It was revealed that 71% of Bilbao locals and 69% of Medellin locals said their hometown is a friendly place.

The percentage of Montrealers who think the city is welcoming hasn't been shared by Time Out.

But it's likely much lower than the 69% that Medellin got as the third-friendliest city, since Montreal is ranked 17th overall.

  • Senior Writer

    Lisa Belmonte (she/her) is a Senior Writer with Narcity Media. After graduating with a Bachelor of Journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), she joined the Narcity team. Lisa covers news and notices from across the country from a Canada-wide perspective. Her early coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic earned Narcity its first-ever national journalism award nomination.

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