Let’s be real: making friends while studying abroad is one of the main reasons most people go. Not the credits, not the line on the CV, but the people. The ones you’ll still be calling three years later when you need advice or just miss that specific feeling of being somewhere completely new with someone who gets it.
But not all cities are built the same when it comes to making friends studying abroad. Some places hand you a social life on arrival, while others take a bit more patience. We looked at every Beyond Abroad destination through one specific lens: how easy is it, realistically, to meet people and build genuine connections there? Here is our honest take, ranked by social ease, with data and real student experience behind every score.
How we scored this: each city is rated out of 10 for social ease, based on four factors: local friendliness toward foreigners (InterNations Expat Insider 2025 data), size and activity of the international student community, language accessibility in daily life, and the social infrastructure of the city (student events, nightlife, shared activities). Scores reflect how easy it is for a new student to make friends: not just how friendly the city is in general.
The overachievers
These are the cities where making friends studying abroad happens almost automatically. You will not need to try very hard.
🇮🇩 Bali, Indonesia - 9.5
🇨🇷 San José, Costa Rica - 9.2
🇹🇭 Bangkok, Thailand - 9.0
🇵🇹 Lisbon, Portugal - 8.8
The strong performers
These cities are fantastic for making friends studying abroad, with one or two things worth knowing going in.
🇮🇹 Cagliari, Italy - 8.5
🇦🇺 Sydney / Australia - 8.3
🇮🇪 Dublin, Ireland - 8.2
🇰🇷 Seoul, South Korea - 8.2
The solid mid-tier
Great experiences, but with one meaningful factor that requires a bit more social effort from you.
🇲🇾 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - 7.8
🌆 Multicultural by nature
Kuala Lumpur is one of the most multicultural cities in Southeast Asia, which makes it a genuinely interesting social environment. English is an official language and widely spoken. The main reason KL is not higher is that the social scene requires a bit more navigation than Bali or Bangkok: it is a big, spread-out city, and finding your community takes slightly more intentionality. Once you do, the social life is excellent.
🇺🇸 Chicago / USA - 7.7
🏙️ Campus is the social hub
American universities invest heavily in campus social infrastructure: orientation weeks, clubs, sports, dorm life, and student events. Clara, a Beyond Abroad student at North Park in Chicago, described the campus community as immediately welcoming and said her closest friendships formed there within the first weeks. The city of Chicago itself is lively, walkable, and full of things to do together. The slight caveat with the US generally is that making friends outside the campus environment can take longer, and the social life is more campus-centred than city-centred compared to European or Asian destinations.
🇳🇿 New Zealand - 7.5
🏔️ Adventure is a social activity here
New Zealand punches well above its weight for social connection, primarily because the country’s outdoors culture creates endless reasons to do things together. Hiking, skydiving, kayaking, bungee jumping: activities that would be extraordinary elsewhere are just the weekend in New Zealand. One student described falling in love with the country despite a rocky start with homesickness, largely through the shared adventure of it all. The international student community is active, locals are warm, and English removes any language friction. The main challenge is geography: New Zealand is not a hub for onwards travel, so the international mix is smaller than in Asia or Europe.
🇸🇬 Singapore - 7.4
🌐 Extremely international, slightly formal
Singapore is perhaps the most internationally diverse city in Asia. English is the language of everything. The student community at JCU Singapore draws from across the globe, and the city’s infrastructure makes getting around and socializing straightforward. Social life in Singapore tends to be more organized and less spontaneous than in Bali or Bangkok. It is a professional, fast-paced city. Locals can also take longer to warm up than in Southeast Asian countries with warmer social cultures. Once you are in, you are in properly. The connections you make in Singapore tend to be professionally and personally durable.
🇹🇼 Taiwan - 7.3
🥟 One of the friendliest countries globally
Taiwan consistently ranks in the top 10 friendliest countries globally (InterNations). Locals are genuinely curious about and welcoming toward foreigners, and Taipei specifically has a thriving international student community. The main social barrier is language: Mandarin is dominant in daily life, and while English is increasingly spoken in urban areas, it is not universal. Students who pick up even basic Mandarin unlock a meaningfully warmer social experience. The night market culture, the weekend hiking scene, and the student life around major universities create plenty of natural social venues.
The ones that need a bit more from you
These destinations offer incredible experiences, but making friends here requires more intentionality. The payoff is real: it just takes longer to arrive.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom - 7.0
☕ Warm eventually, reserved at first
The British are friendly. They are also notoriously indirect, and the famous reserve can read as coldness when you are new and trying to break in. The language barrier is zero, which helps: and student unions, sports clubs, and societies are excellent vehicles for meeting people. Shared activity is the main social currency in UK cities. Joining a five-a-side league or a film society gets you further than trying to make friends in a lecture hall. London, Manchester, and Portsmouth all have massive international student communities. Once you find your people, the friendships run deep. It just takes a few more weeks than in Bangkok.
🇯🇵 Tokyo / Kyoto, Japan - 6.5
🎌 The most rewarding challenge on this list
Japan is one of the most polite countries in the world. It is also one of the most socially reserved toward foreigners in daily life. Making Japanese friends takes real effort and, ideally, some Japanese language. The international student community at Temple University Japan is large, active, and English-speaking. You will not struggle for social connection there. If your goal is genuine immersion and local friendships, Japan requires sustained effort across the full semester. Students who commit to it describe the friendships they form in Japan as among the most meaningful of their lives. The culture is extraordinary. Getting in socially just takes more patience than elsewhere.
The honest takeaway
The city you choose genuinely shapes how easy making friends studying abroad will be in those first few critical weeks. Bali, Costa Rica, and Bangkok hand you a social life almost immediately. Finland and Japan ask you to work for it. Neither is better: they are just different, and the right match depends on what you are looking for.
What every city on this list has in common, though, is this: the students who make the most friends are the ones who say yes to things.
💡Beyond Abroad connects you with other students heading to your destination before you even board the flight. You can start building friendships before you arrive: which means you already have people to say yes with from day one.
Ready to find your destination and your people? Explore Beyond Abroad programs across 30+ countries.