By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Africa’s most populous nation has been ranked the 7th friendliest country to strangers in the world, the 2025 World Happiness Report by the United Nations has indicated.
The report, compiled by Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Centre in collaboration with Gallup and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, assessed 147 countries based on self-reported well-being and prosocial behaviours, where Nigeria ranked high.
Others on the top 10 friendliest nations to strangers include Jamaica, Liberia, Trinidad, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Venezuela, Ukraine, and Zambia.
Some of the prosocial behaviour indices cover areas such as helping others, volunteering for jobs without financial rewards, and making donations to charity.
In the ranking, while Nigeria came top in kindness to strangers, it came 105th overall in happiness, pointing to challenges like poor life satisfaction and weak institutions.
“Where institutional structures are weak, helping strangers likely becomes the most direct and effective form of benevolence,” the report noted.
The report also unravelled a trust gap. Nigerians were more confident in strangers than in the public systems. When asked about lost wallets:
Nigeria ranked 33rd if found by a stranger, 71st if found by a neighbour, and 126th if found by the police.
This highlights low public trust in institutions, a pattern seen in many countries where a fragile system of public institutions has persisted.
Top 10 Friendliest Countries to Strangers include:
1. Jamaica
2. Liberia
3. Trinidad
4. Kenya
5. Sierra Leone
6. Senegal
7. Nigeria
8. Venezuela
9. Ukraine
10. Zambia
Out of the 147 countries covered, Nigeria also ranked 45th in charitable donations.
The 2025 report calls on governments, especially in countries with strong community values but poor institutional trust, to bridge the gap between citizen goodwill and systemic reliability.
