Indonesia has been ranked the world's friendliest country for local friendliness, according to the Expat Insider 2026 survey by InterNations, with Colombia and Mexico completing the top three, as expatriates highlighted warm welcomes and the ease of building relationships with residents.

The annual survey, one of the world's largest studies of expatriate experiences, asked thousands of people living abroad to rate various aspects of life in their host countries, including how friendly local people are, how easy it is to make local friends and whether expats feel welcome.

Indonesia claimed the top position in the Local Friendliness category, ahead of Colombia, Mexico, the Philippines and Brazil. Completing the top ten were Panama, Oman, Thailand, Kenya and Vietnam, reflecting strong performances across Southeast Asia, Latin America , the Middle East and parts of Africa.

According to InterNations, the Local Friendliness ranking measures expatriates' perceptions of how welcoming residents are toward foreigners and how comfortable newcomers feel interacting with local communities. The rankings are based on personal experiences rather than tourism reviews or public opinion polls.

Indonesia has consistently performed well in recent editions of Expat Insider. Respondents frequently cite the country's welcoming culture, community-oriented society and everyday hospitality as reasons they feel accepted. Many also report that locals are approachable and willing to help newcomers adjust to daily life.

Latin America also stood out in the 2026 results. Colombia ranked second, while Mexico and Brazil placed third and fifth, respectively. Panama finished sixth, reinforcing the region's reputation for openness and strong social connections between expatriates and residents.

Southeast Asia dominated the upper end of the rankings, with Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam all securing places in the top ten. InterNations has previously noted that countries in the region often receive high scores for friendliness, personal interactions and the ease with which expatriates integrate into local communities.

Outside Asia and Latin America, Oman ranked seventh and Kenya ninth. Oman has regularly been recognised by InterNations for its welcoming atmosphere and high quality of life for expatriates, while Kenya's appearance in the top ten highlights positive experiences reported by foreign residents living in East Africa.

InterNations conducts its Expat Insider survey annually, drawing on responses from thousands of expatriates representing numerous nationalities and destinations worldwide. The rankings evaluate countries across multiple dimensions, including quality of life, working abroad, personal finance, ease of settling in and local friendliness.

The Local Friendliness ranking focuses specifically on expatriates' day-to-day interactions with residents rather than broader measures such as safety, infrastructure or economic performance, making it a snapshot of where newcomers feel most welcomed by local communities.

The National Disaster Management Organisation issued an urgent flood alert at 7:30 a.m. GMT on June 29, warning residents and motorists to avoid low-lying communities and flood-prone areas. It advised the public not to drive or walk through floodwaters and urged people in affected areas to move to higher ground.

Interior Minister Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka appealed for public cooperation and urged residents to remain indoors where it was safe to do so.

“We are expecting heavier rains before midday. We are therefore pleading with everyone to stay where they are if it is safe to do so,” he said.

Emergency teams, including personnel from the Ghana Armed Forces and the police, have been deployed for rescue operations in various locations. The country's main power distributors, Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) and Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), also temporarily shut down power substations in select areas to reduce electrical risks. At the same time, the Ghana School of Law postponed examinations scheduled for Monday.

A city that floods almost every year

For many residents, the latest flooding is not an isolated disaster but part of a pattern that has persisted for over a decade.

Accra has experienced repeated major floods in 2010, 2015, 2016, 2022, 2023, 2025 and 2026, with the same communities, including Kaneshie, Odawna, Adabraka, Alajo, Weija, Circle and parts of the Odaw River basin, regularly among the worst affected.

The city's most devastating disaster occurred on June 3, 2015, when torrential rain flooded much of Accra before fuel floating on floodwaters ignited at a GOIL filling station near Kwame Nkrumah Circle. The combined flood and explosion killed more than 200 people , making it one of Ghana's deadliest peacetime disasters.

According to national flood records covering 1935 to 2023, Ghana has recorded more than 3,000 flood-related deaths and over 700,000 people displaced, with Accra accounting for many of the country's most destructive urban flood events.

In 2023 alone, researchers identified around 20 separate flooding incidents, while a storm in May 2025 killed four people and displaced more than 3,000 residents.

A recent United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)  Ghana analysis described Accra’s floods as a familiar crisis, noting that homes, businesses and transport systems were again affected after heavy rainfall in early June 2026.

Why Accra keeps flooding

Urban planners say heavy rainfall alone does not explain the severity of flooding.

Researchers have consistently identified a combination of rapid urbanisation, construction on wetlands and floodplains, inadequate drainage infrastructure, blocked waterways caused by waste disposal and weak enforcement of planning regulations as the main drivers of Accra's flood risk.

The President of the Ghana Institution of Engineers has criticised the country’s long-term approach to urban planning, saying, “We have done things the wrong way for over 30–40 years.”

Rapid population growth has also transformed natural floodplains into densely populated neighbourhoods, while large areas of permeable land have been replaced by concrete, increasing surface runoff during storms.

Climate experts say heavier rainfall associated with climate change is further increasing the frequency and intensity of flooding across coastal West African cities, including Accra.

Economic costs

Accra is Ghana's commercial centre and the Greater Accra Region generates more than 40% of the country's non-oil GDP, meaning repeated flooding disrupts national supply chains, transportation and commerce.

Small businesses are among the hardest hit, with floods regularly destroying inventory, damaging equipment and forcing temporary closures.

The World Bank committed US$150 million in additional financing under the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) Project to improve flood management, drainage systems and solid waste management for more than 2.5 million people living within the Odaw River Basin.

However, UNDP has argued that infrastructure alone will not solve the problem. It has supported work on a Greater Accra flood contingency plan and parametric flood insurance model designed to provide faster payouts after severe flooding, especially for vulnerable households in low-income and informal settlements.

Public frustration grows

Residents say the repeated nature of the crisis has deepened public frustration.

“We are reliving the same story every rainy season… when it rains like this, we know trouble is coming,” one resident said.

The Ghana Meteorological Agency has forecast continued rainfall across southern Ghana, including coastal areas, while authorities have urged residents to report emergencies through the national emergency number 112.

A series of strong earthquakes struck multiple regions across the globe within 12 hours, with the strongest a magnitude 6.5 earthquake off the coast of the southern Philippines.

The USGS recorded 11 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or higher during the period, affecting countries across Asia, Oceania, Central America and the Caribbean. The events ranged from magnitude 4.6 to 6.5, highlighting the concentration of seismic activity along the Pacific "Ring of Fire," where tectonic plates frequently interact.

The largest event was a magnitude 6.5 earthquake that struck 34 kilometres west-southwest of Sarangani, Philippines, at a depth of 42 kilometres.

The quake occurred in a region that is among the world's most seismically active due to the interaction of the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The USGS assigned the event a Green PAGER alert, indicating that widespread fatalities or major economic losses were unlikely.

The tremor came less than three weeks after a devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck southern Mindanao on June 8, underscoring the region's continued seismic activity.

Japan recorded two earthquakes exceeding magnitude 5 during the same period.

A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck near Yokoshiba at a depth of 43 kilometres, followed later by a magnitude 5.7 event near Oshino at 50.9 kilometres depth, according to the USGS.

Japan sits atop the convergence of four major tectonic plates and experiences thousands of earthquakes each year, making it one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries.

Elsewhere, the USGS recorded:

Most of these earthquakes occurred along active plate boundaries, particularly around the Pacific Ring of Fire, a horseshoe-shaped belt that accounts for roughly 90% of the world's earthquakes and about 75% of active volcanoes, according to the USGS.

Why earthquakes cluster along the Ring of Fire

The Ring of Fire stretches around the Pacific Ocean through the Americas, East Asia and Oceania. Continuous movement of tectonic plates causes frequent earthquakes as plates collide, separate or slide past one another.

Countries such as Japan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand routinely experience significant seismic activity because they lie directly on these plate boundaries.