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I know it’s not all rainbows and skoenlappers here in South Africa, yet the Rainbow Nation has been recognised as the world’s friendliest nation.

If you’re tilting your head from side to side the way a confused dog might, then try leaving the country for a while just so that you can arrive at one of our airports and feel the warm embrace of our people.

Personally, I was mesmerised by the warm smiles and chatty banter of the Saffas at the airport when I arrived home after spending years in Japan, where the people are friendly, but in a seemingly less convincing way. Don’t just take my word for it; another global survey has confirmed that South Africa is the world’s friendliest nation.

According to TimeOut, this new research by payments gateway Remitly polled 3,000 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.

Mzansi topped the list of friendliest nations, scoring an applause-worthy 36.43 out of 40.

The five key personality traits, according to the scientific ‘Big Five’ model, are openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion, and neuroticism. Agreeableness is deemed the most effective way to gauge social harmony, and here South Africa shone.

Respondents were asked how they feel about people from different nations in terms of concern for others, making time for people, and the ability to make people feel at ease. This is how Remitly interpreted South Africa’s winning score:

“Residents are known for being warm and welcoming, making it easy for travellers and visitors alike to feel at ease around them. It’s not uncommon to be greeted by polite strangers while walking down the street, and South Africans are generally happy to socialise, by engaging in conversations and showing off their good humour, making plenty of jokes. An added plus point is that there are eleven official languages spoken in South Africa (English, Afrikaans and nine indigenous languages), meaning that there are plentiful ways to communicate with the locals and make new friends.”

The collective ego boost is head-spinning.

[source:timeout]