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I don’t agree with many of the replies. I lived in a big city for over 30 years and people were not very friendly. I loved the city life, but everyone who rode the bus looked down at their phones and never spoke.
Now I live in a much smaller town with a lot of retired people and they are much friendlier. They have time on their hands and are looking to meet new people. It depends how old you are, but if you are retired, a small town geared toward retirees is friendlier.
Good info here. Thanks! I guess I'm also looking for more specifics as to where these "much smaller" towns are, with "a lot of retired people [that are] much friendlier."
I don’t agree with many of the replies. I lived in a big city for over 30 years and people were not very friendly. I loved the city life, but everyone who rode the bus looked down at their phones and never spoke.
Now I live in a much smaller town with a lot of retired people and they are much friendlier. They have time on their hands and are looking to meet new people. It depends how old you are, but if you are retired, a small town geared toward retirees is friendlier.
I tend to agree with this. I live in a city of 5 million people and I would not say people are especially friendly. Our etiquette may be different to American and here it is absolutely not done to speak to strangers on public transport. It is actually quite frowned upon to even speak to people you know. Some lines have quiet carriages and people expect that to be enforced. You may say hello when you walk past someone locally but you would not stop for a chat unless you know them. We rarely go into a bank as we bank electronically most of the time. We pay our public transport fares electronically, self-serve in many retail outlets and I would often be out all day without really speaking to anyone.
So socialising is with people you know and with group she you belong to. With us, it is primarily golf for him. I do some language groups, we are both in a walking group etc. Few people here are connected with organised religion but there are many Probus clubs etc around.
I think a 55+ Active Adult community is probably the most friendly.
Everyone is from somewhere else. As long as you do things you will meet friendly people. Talk about what you're doing now not what you were in the past.
Good info here. Thanks! I guess I'm also looking for more specifics as to where these "much smaller" towns are, with "a lot of retired people [that are] much friendlier."
And yes, I agree, experiences may vary.
I'm in North Myrtle Beach SC. Pop is 15K (not counting summer tourists) and median age is 60.
Only been here since March but so far loving it and it's turned out to be a good choice for me.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Climate / region?
City / suburban / rural ?
USA only?
Interests?
Needs ? Medical? Airport?
From what we encounter. (Travel most the time, stay with local people all over the world.)
Wisconsin and Minnesota have been tops in friendly and welcoming.
Left coast is congenial and accepting (very little racial or economic social tension)
Plains / prairie = most helpful neighbors
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, have most impressed us in the GWN
Observation... As you venture west in USA, people are more independent, that is why they moved. West.
Have had friends who moved from west to east, and it did not work out for them. Sometimes regions can be very 'clanish', taking care of their own. We found that in Texas, and Vermont.
Generally, people are very nice and friendly.
But to have neighbors who will come care for you when you are sick and alone.... Those are rare, but possible.
Depends on your definition of friendly. Smiley friendly in a casual way, sincere friendly or the type where it takes time to know you, but friends forever friendly.
There are friendly and unfriendly people everywhere. How friendly people seem is almost always down to you, yourself.
I wish that were true but having lived in 5 states over the years , suburbia, city,rural and village there are differences. My husband and I are just as friendly and cheerful As ever but how we’ve been received in each place has been distinct.
For the op, a friend of mine moved to st.paul Minnesota And has made more friends in one year than she did the 10 years in the Midwest . She was scared of moving there but she said the people are lovely in general. We lived in a small village in Ohio and it was very friendly and I had a huge circle of friends . Where we are now in Phoenix not friendly, not unfriendly either, just utterly indifferent and hard to make any connections. That doesn’t mean everywhere here in Phoenix or Arizona is like that, but our experience in the part of Phoenix we live, no, not friendly. On the other hand we find the people in Cave Creek about 40 mins away very friendly in general, even the staff at the post office ( our local post office the staff are sour faced lot).
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