Around the world, Canada is colloquially known as a friendly, welcoming place, but now there is research to back that up.

New data shows Toronto is the friendliest city in the world. Well, tied for first with Sydney, Australia.

Preply — an online language learning platform — has developed the Community Spirit Index, a comprehensive ranking of 53 cities worldwide based on their friendliness to non-natives.

Six factors were considered when it comes to determining the world's friendliest cities:

• Friendly staff: The percentage of accommodation reviews mentioning "friendly," giving us an idea of how welcoming local staff are.
• Visitor return rate: The percentage of visitors who return to each city after travelling there, telling us if the location left a good impression.
• Community respect: The city's safety index score, which indicates if it's a safe environment for both natives and newcomers.
• Acceptance of diversity: The LGBTQ+ equality score in each city, which indicates if this is an accepting and supportive community.
• Happiness: The city's overall happiness and well-being score, according to inhabitants.
• Ease of communicating through a common language.

According to Preply, "Toronto boasts a very decent visitor return rate of 15 per cent, which means that people who come to Toronto tend to love it so much that they come back again and again."

The city is called an "inclusive and welcoming place for everyone" and received a happiness score of 7.03 out of 10, as well as a very high LGBTQ+ equality score of 90 out of 100.

The only other Canadian city to make the top 20 was Montreal.