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World's Friendliest Countries

The Middle East has long had a reputation for being one of the world's perennial trouble spots. But for expatriates, the tiny Persian Gulf county Bahrain ranks as one of the most welcoming places to work.

That's the surprising result of a new survey of 3,100 expatriates conducted by HSBC Bank ( HBC - news - people ). Bahrain ranked first in one key measure of how easy it is for expatriates to set up a new life for their families. It received high marks from expats who like the country's easy access to modern health care, decent and affordable housing, and network of social groups that expatriates can join.

Canada, which ranked first in a similar survey last year, fell to second place on HSBC's integration score, which measures how easily foreigners and their families can settle into a new country. Australia, Thailand and Malaysia rounded out the top five. Foreign workers in these countries found it easy to make local friends and said they enjoyed a higher quality of life than in their native countries.

HSBC's Expat Explorer survey was conducted between February and April 2009. Survey respondents were from the U.S., Europe and elsewhere and lived in more than two dozen countries and on four continents. They ranked their new homes based on 23 factors, including food, entertainment, health care, commute and education. Of those measures, HSBC selected eight to create its so-called "integration score," a snapshot of which countries are most welcoming to expats.

Click here to see full list.

It is possible that Bahrain's first-place finish is a fluke. Only 31 expats working in Bahrain participated in the survey, vs. more than 450 respondents from the United Kingdom. Bahrain ranked as the best country to join local community groups and coordinate health care. Respondents found it less easy to make local friends and learn the languages (Arabic, Farsi and Urdu), but the country ranked in the top five when it came to finding a home, setting up finances, and finding good schools.

The United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom received some of the poorest scores on the integration scale. Expats in the Emirates reported finding it difficult to join local community groups; only 39% of respondents made local friends compared to 76% of respondents living in other countries. Foreign workers in England complained about the challenges of finding affordable housing.

Rank	Country	Making Friends	Making Local Friends	Joining Community Groups	Organizing School For My Children	Organizing My Finances	Organizing My Health Care	Finding Somewhere To Live	Setting Up Utilities
1	Bahrain	5	20	1	5	3	1	2	4
2	Canada	11	2	3	6	7	8	5	2
3	Australia	10	6	9	7	1	7	11	5
4	Thailand	1	16	18	4	11	2	1	9
5	Malaysia	4	14	19	1	3	3	4	13
6	South Africa	6	2	8	3	14	6	3	14
7	Hong Kong	3	17	12	17	2	5	8	3
8	Singapore	7	18	24	13	6	4	13	1
9	Spain	12	8	13	18	10	9	7	8
10	United States	15	7	4	12	20	24	10

Source - Forbes

Fattest Countries

Fattest Countries in the World

More than 1.6 billion people in the world are either overweight or obese, according to a recent study by the World Health Organization. Here’s a look at the countries with the highest percent of overweight adults (people age 15 and over). People are considered overweight if their body mass index (BMI) is 25 or higher and obese with a BMI or 30 or higher.

There are currently 1.6 billion overweight adults in the world, according to the World Health Organization. That number is projected to grow by 40% over the next 10 years. The following list reflects the percentage of overweight adults aged 15 and over. These are individuals who have individual body mass indexes, which measures weight relative to height, greater than or equal to 25. Obese is defined as having a BMI greater than or equal to 30.

Rank	Country	%
1.	Nauru	94.5
2.	Micronesia, Federated States of	91.1
3.	Cook Islands	90.9
4.	Tonga	90.8
5.	Niue	81.7
6.	Samoa	80.4
7.	Palau	78.4
8.	Kuwait	74.2
9.	United States	74.1
10.	Kiribati	73.6
11.	Dominica	71.0
12.	Barbados	69.7
13.	Argentina	69.4
14.	Egypt	69.4
15.	Malta	68.7
16.	Greece	68.5
17.	New Zealand	68.4
18.	United Arab Emirates	68.3
19.	Mexico	68.1
20.	Trinidad and Tobago	67.9
21.	Australia	67.4
22.	Belarus	66.8
23.	Chile	65.3
24.	Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)	65.2
25.	Seychelles	64.6
26.	Bahrain	64.1
27.	Andorra	63.8
28.	United Kingdom	63.8
29.	Saudi Arabia	63.5
30.	Monaco	62.4
31.	Bolivia	62.2
32.	San Marino	62.1
33.	Guatemala	61.2
34.	Mongolia	61.2
35.	Canada	61.1
36.	Qatar	61.0
37.	Uruguay	60.9
38.	Jordan	60.5
39.	Bahamas	60.4
40.	Iceland	60.4
41.	Nicaragua	60.4
42.	Cuba	60.1
43.	Germany	60.1
44.	Brunei Darussalam	59.8
45.	Slovenia	59.8
46.	Peru	59.6
47.	Vanuatu	59.6
48.	Finland	58.7
49.	Jamaica	57.4

50.	Israel	57.3
51.	Saint Lucia	57.3
52.	Austria	57.1
53.	Azerbaijan	57.1
54.	Turkey	56.8
55.	Tuvalu	56.6
56.	Dominican Republic	56.5
57.	Slovakia	56.3
58.	Cyprus	56.2
59.	Saint Kitts and Nevis	56.1
60.	Costa Rica	55.8
61.	Colombia	55.6
62.	Antigua and Barbuda	55.5
63.	Switzerland	55.4
64.	Montenegro	54.9
65.	Serbia	54.9
66.	Serbia and Montenegro (The former state union of)	54.9
67.	Albania	54.8
68.	Fiji	54.8
69.	Bulgaria	54.2
70.	Luxembourg	54.2
71.	Croatia	53.9
72.	Bosnia and Herzegovina	53.8
73.	Portugal	53.8
74.	Armenia	53.3
75.	Grenada	53.3
76.	South Africa	53.3
77.	Iran (Islamic Republic of)	53.2
78.	Libyan Arab Jamahiriya	53.2
79.	Lithuania	53.1
80.	Lebanon	53.0
81.	Czech Republic	52.9
82.	Syrian Arab Republic	52.8
83.	Spain	51.8
84.	Hungary	51.6
85.	Panama	51.4
86.	Tunisia	51.0
87.	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	50.6
88.	Brazil	50.5
89.	Belize	49.8
90.	Sweden	49.7
91.	Norway	49.1
92.	Russian Federation	49.1
93.	El Salvador	48.7
94.	Lesotho	48.5
95.	Suriname	47.8
96.	Paraguay	47.7
97.	Guyana	47.5
98.	Poland	47.5
99.	Latvia	47.3
100.	The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia	47.2

Source: World Health Organization.