How friendly is the world to India?

Two sides, seven measures, one score. What a government does — UN voting, trade, defence ties — and how Indian travellers fare — sentiment, popularity with Indians, visa ease, safety. All 194 countries, scored 0 to 100.

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Browse all 194 How the score is built

194 countries · 7 weighted measures · 2 unweighted bonus considerations · recalculated regularly

The 20 highest scores of the current run, photographed. Advancing on its own — pick one to hold it.

Rediscovering the world, through an Indian lens

A country can vote with India at every turn and still make an Indian traveller feel unwelcome at passport control. Another can be warm on the street and absent in the chamber. Most rankings measure one half and call it the whole.

Indians now travel further and spend more abroad than at any point in the country’s history. That is real economic weight, and it ought to reward real friendship. A destination is genuinely comfortable when the government respects India’s sovereignty and its citizens are glad you came.

So the index reads both halves at once. Voting records at the UN and other multilateral forums, defence treaties and bilateral trade volumes give the geopolitical side. Social sentiment and safety data give the human one. Four claims, 7 measured quantities, one number.

The four claims, and what carries them

Each resolves into measures the index actually holds, at the weights it actually uses.

Geopolitical support: Whether a government backs India’s position in the UN and other multilateral forums — vote after vote, not once.; UN voting alignment ×0.20
Strong alliances: Bilateral trade of real depth, and standing defence agreements. These are the commitments that cost something to keep, so they signal long-term trust.; Bilateral trade ×0.15Defence ties ×0.15
Social warmth: Whether the population itself is glad you came: the tone of what is being said, and how established a destination this already is for Indians.; Public sentiment ×0.15Popularity with Indians ×0.15
Safety and access: Conditions on the ground for a visitor, and how hard an Indian passport finds it to get through the door in the first place.; Safety ×0.10Visa ease ×0.10

The whole score1.00

Where the 194 fall

One cell per country, in rank order, coloured by band. Point at a cell to name it; select it to open that country.

See the classifications

Numerals in the margin give the rank of the first country in each row. The ringed cells are United Arab Emirates at 91 and Pakistan at 20.

Band distribution across all 194 countries
Band	Score	Countries	Share
Strategic Partner	80–100	20	10.3%
Friendly Nation	60–79	63	32.5%
Neutral / Developing	40–59	104	53.6%
Watchlist / Caution	0–39	7	3.6%
All countries		194	100%

104 of the 194 sit in Neutral / Developing (40–59). That is the part of the table where a traveller actually needs help, and the part a single headline number hides most.

Top of the table

The 12 highest scores of the current run, with each score placed on the same 0–100 scale.

All 194 in the rankings

Highest Bharat Friends Index scores, ranks 1 to 12
#	Country	Score
1	United Arab Emirates	91
2	Oman	88
3	Vietnam	87
4	Bhutan	85
5	Sri Lanka	85
6	Malaysia	84
7	Mauritius	84
8	Singapore	83
9	Russia	83
10	Indonesia	82
11	South Africa	82
12	Japan	82

The dashed rule marks 80 — the Strategic Partner threshold. Where no flag artwork is on file, the name stands on its own.

The other end

7 countries fall into Watchlist / Caution. These are the 4 lowest scores in the index.

The dashed rule here marks 40 — the bottom of the Neutral / Developing band.

How the number is built

Seven measures, each scored 0–100 and each pointing the same way — higher is always better — combined at fixed weights.

Full methodology

0%255075100%

UN voting alignment0.20
Public sentiment0.15
Popularity with Indians0.15
Bilateral trade0.15
Defence ties0.15
Visa ease0.10
Safety0.10

Two further measures — affordability and vegetarian-friendliness — are computed and stored for every country but carry zero weight. They are bonus considerations: worth reading when two countries already score alike, and never part of the composite above.

Japan

Strategic Partner · Tier 2 Trade Partner · no penalty applied

Worked example — the 7 weighted measures

UN voting alignment×0.20

Public sentiment×0.15

Popularity with Indians×0.15

Bilateral trade×0.15

Defence ties×0.15

Visa ease×0.10

Safety×0.10

Bonus considerations — no weight

Affordability—

Vegetarian-friendliness—

(68×0.20) + (88×0.15) + (82×0.15) + (97×0.15) + (85×0.15) + (70×0.10) + (95×0.10) = 82.9

Published score 82. Totals are truncated, not rounded, and where an integrity or Pakistan-support penalty applies the weighted total is multiplied by 0.95 — the record carries a single flag, so it cannot say which of the two fired.

GDP $4.44TUpdated 22 Jul 2026Open Japan

Ask the guide

A question in plain language, answered from the same records the rankings are built from — not from the open web. It will name the scores it used, and every country it mentions has a page here you can check.

AI travel guide

Reads the stored index, not the open web

Ask me where to go. I can compare countries on safety, budget, visa ease and how welcome Indian travellers are — and I will name the scores I used.

Three questions a minute, seven turns a session. The guide is a language model reading stored scores; it can be wrong, and every country it names has a page here you can check.

Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam

The world is one family.

The point of measuring these bonds is to strengthen them. Naming the countries that are at once India’s firmest allies and its warmest hosts lets a traveller book with confidence — knowing they are going to visit friends, not merely foreign ground.

Read the methodology