Well, we always knew it, but now another global survey has confirmed it: South Africa is the world’s friendliest nation!
That’s according to new research by payments gateway Remitly, which polled 3000 people from 27 countries around the world on the ‘agreeableness’ trait of the Big 5 Personality Test, a globally recognised and standardised personality test.
You can read their research methodology here, but essentially they asked travellers to vote on a 40-point scale of ‘agreeableness’, ranking the results to calculate an average 'friendliness' score for each nation.
Topping the Remitly list of the world’s friendliest nations is South Africa, which scored an impressive 34.63 out of 40.
And we couldn’t agree more: it’s a place where strangers will smile at you in the street, and you’ll never be short of an impromptu bit of chit-chat while waiting in a queue. Need help with directions? Locals will be only too happy to help, in any one of our 11 official languages.
Greece came in second place, scoring 33.71, while Croatia snuck into third with 33.5 out of 40. Mexico and – perhaps surprisingly – Sweden rounded out the top five.
Cape Town International has ranked amongst the world's best airports!