The United States has emerged as the world’s most favourable country for building professional connections with strangers, followed by the United Kingdom and Australia, according to a new global study by Wave Connect, an event lead-capture and AI badge-scanning platform.
Over 75% of Americans reported helping a stranger in the past month, making the US the best environment to ask for networking aid and advice.
The best country to build professional trust is Denmark, as three-fourths of locals easily place their confidence in strangers.
Swedes are the most open to international networking processes, with 9 in 10 residents naturally trusting people of other nationalities.
The study, based on an October 2026 professional socialisation report, evaluated 10 countries on two broad parameters: social openness and the strength of their business ecosystems.
The US is the best country to network with strangers, as over three-quarters (76%) of respondents reported helping a new person in the last month.
US leads on business ecosystem and willingness to help
While only 39.5% of Americans surveyed said they trusted people they met for the first time, 73.2% expressed trust in people of other nationalities.
More significantly, 76% said they had helped a stranger in the preceding month, the highest proportion among the 10 countries studied.
The US also hosted 792 international association meetings in 2025, substantially more than any other country in the ranking. It recorded 13.87 new businesses per 1,000 working-age adults and a startup ecosystem score of 314.1.
The startup ecosystem score was nearly four times that of the next-ranked country, the UK, which scored 80.1.
According to George El-Hage, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Wave Connect, informal professional networks play a significant role in how people find employment opportunities.
“Around 70% of job openings are never publicly posted: they circulate through referrals, alumni channels, and professional associations instead,” El-Hage said.
He added that referral candidates were hired more frequently than non-referral candidates, underlining the importance of building professional relationships beyond conventional job portals.
UK and Australia rank second and third
The United Kingdom ranked second with a networking friendliness score of 78.4.
It recorded the highest rate of new business formation among the 10 countries, with 19.19 new businesses per 1,000 working-age adults. Around 53.7% of respondents said they trusted people they met for the first time, while 83% expressed trust in people of other nationalities.
The UK hosted 507 international association meetings in 2025, the second-highest number in the ranking.
Australia secured the third position with a score of 77.1. The country recorded 18.06 new businesses per 1,000 working-age adults, while 69% of respondents said they had helped a stranger in the previous month.
Around 74.3% of Australians also expressed trust in people of other nationalities.
Sweden and Denmark lead on trust
While the US leads the overall ranking, Nordic countries performed better on certain social trust indicators.
Sweden ranked fourth with a score of 72.0 and recorded the highest level of trust towards people of other nationalities. Around 90.2% of respondents said they trusted people from other countries.
It also had the second-highest proportion of people trusting strangers they met for the first time, at 73.9%.
Denmark ranked fifth with a score of 70.8. It recorded the highest trust in people met for the first time, at 75.3%, followed by trust in people of other nationalities at 84.4%.
These are the friendliest countries to network in a new environment:
““Around 70% of job openings are never publicly posted: they circulate through referrals, alumni channels, and professional associations instead. Referral candidates are hired ten times more often than non-referrals, and 70% of professionals land roles at companies where they already knew someone. A culture where 70-80% of people report helping a stranger last month creates the informal infrastructure that fills most of the jobs that never appear on a job board,” said George El-Hage, Founder & CEO of Wave Connect.
