Based on the 2025 Expat Insider survey, Kuwait is ranked as the least friendly country for foreigners. Other nations often cited for having more reserved, distant, or unfriendly reputations among tourists and expats include Russia, Czechia, Austria, and various Northern/Central European countries, often due to cultural barriers or slow assimilation processes.
The latest Expat Insider 2025 ranking reveals the world's least friendly countries for foreigners, with Kuwait once again taking the top spot. Expats cite challenges in making local friends, difficulties integrating into the culture, and a generally unwelcoming social environment.
The World's Friendliest Nations, According To Scientific Study
South Africa tops our list of the friendliest nations, scoring an impressive 34.63 out of 40 on the 'agreeableness' trait of the Big 5 Personality Test.
Greeks were found to be the second-friendliest people in the world, scoring 33.71 on the test.
Ranking of the least happy countries worldwide 2024, by score. Afghanistan was ranked the least happy country in the world, according to the World Happiness Report from 2025. The country scored only 1.36 on a scale from 0 to 10.
The unfriendly countries and territories list (Russian: Список недружественных государств и территорий, romanized: Spisok nedruzhestvennykh gosudarstv i territoriy) is a list of countries and territories published by the Russian government that it says "commit unfriendly actions against Russia, Russian companies and ...
Tuvalu, a tiny country of raised coral atolls, receives around 3,700 visitors per year. It's often considered the least-visited country in the world. Located in the South Pacific between Hawaii and Australia, Tuvalu offers a true escape.
The "red" category includes 11 countries whose citizens would be completely banned from entering the United States. These countries are Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen, according to the New York Times.
Iceland. Ranked number one since 2008, Iceland remains the world's most peaceful nation, leading across all three domains: safety and security, ongoing conflict and militarisation.
France is purportedly the least welcoming country for American tourists, with 15% of French respondents claiming that their country was the least welcoming to U.S. tourists. This response lines up with the American respondents' prediction, with 47% speculating that France took the dimmest view of U.S. travelers.
A survey by YouGov on behalf of DK Eyewitness Travel Guides, found that New York was the friendliest city, followed by Dublin and Amsterdam. More than a quarter (26%) of those questioned said London had the least friendly inhabitants while 29% said Paris inhabitants were worse.
Afghanistan continues to hold the position as the most dangerous country in the world. Persistent terrorism, rampant political instability, and large-scale displacement have left the nation in a state of severe unrest and a highly dangerous place.
Kiribati (specifically its Line Islands, like Kiritimati) is the first nation to greet the New Year 2025, followed closely by Samoa and Tonga, due to their location just west of the International Date Line and use of UTC+14 time zones. These Pacific island nations welcome January 1st earlier than anywhere else in the world.
Finland has been named the world's happiest country for the eighth year in a row, but the outlook in other parts of Europe was not quite so sunny. This year's World Happiness Report saw the UK's happiness sink to its lowest level since 2017, coming in at number 23 on the list.
The 18 countries with no restrictions are: UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden and Taiwan.
High-risk jurisdictions have significant strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and financing of proliferation.
