Whatever happened to “Toronto the Good”? Canadians may have a reputation for being polite, but a new global ranking suggests visitors to Toronto aren’t exactly feeling the love.
The 2026 Friendliest Cities Index, published by travel experience company Fernwayer, analyzed more than 1.2 million Reddit comments to determine which cities travellers find the most welcoming. Toronto came in at a pretty dismal 184th out of 200 cities, with a friendliness score of just 45.5 out of 100, putting it among the 17 lowest-ranked cities.
Researchers looked at Reddit discussions across hundreds of travel and city-related communities, comparing how often people described residents as friendly, welcoming or hospitable versus unfriendly, rude or hostile. Each city was then assigned a friendliness score out of 100.
Montreal came out as Canada’s friendliest city, ranking 12th worldwide (172 places ahead of Toronto!) with a score of 92.5 out of 100. Other Canadian cities didn’t fare quite as well: Quebec City came in at No. 93 with a score of 70.4, while Vancouver ranked 170th, with a score of 49, just 14 spots ahead of Toronto.
Globally, Mérida, Mexico, claimed the title of the world’s friendliest city with a score of 95, followed by Glasgow, Scotland, and Bogotá, Colombia. Buenos Aires, Argentina, finished last with a friendliness score of 42.
“Broken down by region, the Index shows the same shape repeating almost everywhere: the cities scoring the highest for friendliest are often the smaller, slower-paced ones,” the report said, adding that friendliness is expressed differently from one culture to the next, and unfamiliar customs, heavy crowds and a hurried pace can all keep it hidden. “A quiet welcome is easy to mistake for no welcome at all.”
Interestingly, Toronto was named the world’s friendliest city just a few years ago in another study! In 2023, language-learning platform Preply ranked Toronto and Sydney, Australia, as the world’s friendliest cities, with both earning a score of 7.97 out of 10.
That study examined 53 cities using different measures, like visitor return rates, safety, happiness, LGBTQ+ acceptance, English proficiency and accommodation reviews mentioning friendly staff (ironically, Sydney didn’t fare much better than Toronto in Fernwayer’s latest ranking, placing 171st).
You can see Fernwayer’s full study results here. And friendly or not, Toronto was recently ranked the world’s top city for solo travellers and among the top 25 most inspiring cities on the planet!