New Zealand has dropped by 25 places in a list of friendliest countries for foreign residents to resettle.
InterNations, a networking service for expats, conducted a survey on at least 12,500 people who had resettled across 65 different countries. That means an average of nearly 200 people would have taken part from each country.
New Zealand has in the past come out comparatively well, but this year has fallen to 31st place, down from 6th place last year.
Of those living in New Zealand who took part in the Expat Insider survey, 75 percent believed locals had a friendly attitude towards newcomers. Seventy-two percent of expats said they'd likely stay here forever.
But only 60 percent said they found it easy to make local friends.
New Zealand still came out more favourable than our friends across the ditch. Australia ranked in at 37th place, dropping from 34th place last year. Only half of expats surveyed there said they'd likely stay forever, and only 43 percent said they found it easy making local friends.
This year chart-topper Portugal was followed by Taiwan, Mexico and Cambodia.
The top 10 friendliest countries for foreign residents
- Portugal
- Taiwan
- Mexico
- Cambodia
- Bahrain
- Costa Rica
- Oman
- Colombia
- Vietnam
- Canada
In 2014, when the survey began, New Zealand was ranked 16th.
This year is the first year since then that we haven't made the top 10.
The United Kingdom also had a notably low score this year, coming 56th out of the 65 countries surveyed.
Newshub.
