Bahrain is among the friendliest countries in the world for foreigners, influential business publication Forbes was quoted as saying.

The Forbes 15 World's Friendliest Countries list ranked Bahrain as the 13th, based on the ease with which expats can befriend locals, learn the local language, integrate into the community and fit into the culture. The UAE and India were the least friendly, said a report in the Gulf Daily News, our sister newspaper.

It used data collected in an HSBC Expat Explorer survey of 3,385 expatriates across 100 countries between May and July last year.

The Cayman Islands was the friendliest, followed by Australia in second and the UK in third.

"Despite some expats either leaving or thinking about leaving (mainly due to political instability), half feel that they integrate into the community and 87 per cent say they feel welcome at work," said a Forbes online commentary about Bahrain.

Either side of Bahrain was Germany in 12th place and China in 14th place, with Singapore in 15th.

"The least friendly country for expats, according to the Forbes formula, was the UAE," said the magazine.

"And among the countries most challenging for expats overall were Russia and India, according to this year's HSBC survey results. India ranked in last place for the second year in a row." – TradeArabia News Service