- US Ranked World’s Best Country for Building Professional Networks — Study
The United States has been ranked as the world’s most favourable country for building professional relationships with strangers, supported by a strong culture of helping others, a large start-up ecosystem and its position as a leading destination for international business events.
A study by Wave Connect, an event lead-capture and digital badge-scanning company, gave the US a Networking Friendliness Score of 82.3 out of 100, ahead of the United Kingdom, Australia, Sweden and Denmark.
The report sought to measure not only whether residents were willing to interact with unfamiliar people but also whether those encounters occurred in an economic environment capable of converting new relationships into business, investment or employment opportunities.
It combined survey measures of trust and social openness with indicators including new-business registrations, international association meetings and the strength of national start-up ecosystems.
Some 76% of US respondents said they had helped a stranger during the preceding month, the highest proportion among the 10 countries ranked.
The US also hosted 792 international association meetings in 2025 and recorded 13.87 new businesses for every 1,000 working-age adults. Its start-up ecosystem received a score of 314.1, almost four times that of the UK, the next-highest performer on that measure.
Yet the findings also reveal a more complicated feature of American networking culture. Only 39.5% of respondents said they trusted someone they had met for the first time — the lowest rate among the countries in the top 10.
The result suggests that successful networking does not necessarily depend on immediate personal trust. A country may provide abundant opportunities for strangers to connect and assist one another even where deeper confidence develops more slowly.
The UK placed second with an overall score of 78.4, supported by the highest rate of new-business formation among the countries listed.
It recorded 19.19 new businesses per 1,000 working-age adults, exceeding the comparable rates in the US and Australia. The country also hosted 507 international association meetings during 2025.
About 53.7% of UK respondents said they trusted people they had just met, while 83% expressed trust in people of other nationalities.
The combination of business creation, international conferences and openness to foreigners gives the UK a broad platform for professional networking. New companies are particularly important because they tend to generate demand for employees, investors, suppliers and commercial partnerships.
Australia ranked third with a score of 77.1. It recorded 18.06 new businesses for every 1,000 working-age adults, the second-highest rate in the top 10.
Almost seven in 10 Australians said they had helped a stranger during the previous month, while 74.3% expressed trust in people of another nationality.
Australia’s comparatively strong performance illustrates why business dynamism matters to networking. Social openness may make it easier to start a conversation, but a growing population of new companies increases the probability that the interaction produces an economic opportunity.
Sweden and Denmark did not match the scale of the American or British business ecosystems, but they substantially outperformed both countries on measures of interpersonal trust.
Sweden ranked fourth overall, with 73.9% of respondents saying they trusted people they met for the first time. An even larger 90.2% expressed trust in people of another nationality — the highest proportion in the ranking.
The country also hosted 227 international association meetings and received a start-up ecosystem score of 40.8, higher than Australia’s 35.4.
Denmark placed fifth and recorded the highest level of trust in newly encountered people. About 75.3% of Danish respondents said they trusted someone they had met for the first time, while 84.4% trusted people of other nationalities.
The findings point to two different models of effective networking. The American model is driven by scale, business activity and a willingness to offer practical help. The Nordic model is supported by stronger initial trust and openness to people from outside the country.
Canada, Norway, New Zealand, Finland and the Netherlands completed the top 10.
Canada combined relatively high social openness with 312 international association meetings and the third-largest start-up ecosystem score in the ranking.
The Netherlands hosted 330 international meetings more than Sweden, Denmark or Australia — but placed tenth because of its relatively low new-business formation rate and smaller share of respondents who said they had recently helped a stranger.
Wave Connect said professional relationships remain central to hiring, particularly because many vacancies are filled before being advertised publicly.
“Around 70% of job openings are never publicly posted: they circulate through referrals, alumni channels and professional associations instead,” said George El-Hage, founder and chief executive of Wave Connect.
“Referral candidates are hired 10 times more often than non-referrals, and 70% of professionals land roles at companies where they already knew someone.”
Mr El-Hage argued that a society’s willingness to assist unfamiliar people could function as a form of labour-market infrastructure.
“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,” he said.
These figures, cited by the company, reinforce the commercial value of professional networks. They should nevertheless be interpreted carefully because definitions of an unadvertised vacancy, referral candidate and prior professional relationship can differ between studies and labour markets.
Similarly, the report’s overall score combines indicators that measure different things. Hosting a large number of international conferences may reflect the size of a country and its tourism infrastructure, while trust surveys capture perceptions that may not translate directly into successful professional relationships.
The ranking therefore does not prove that every newcomer will find it easier to secure employment or investment in the US than elsewhere. Visa rules, professional accreditation, language, location and access to particular industries remain important barriers.
What it does show is that networking productivity depends on more than friendliness. Trust can open a conversation, but business formation, organised professional events and active commercial ecosystems determine whether that conversation has somewhere to go.
The US leads because it combines the world’s largest start-up ecosystem with frequent international gatherings and a strong willingness to help unfamiliar people. Sweden and Denmark may offer higher interpersonal trust, but America provides greater scale for converting a new contact into a job, client, investor or business partner.
