An annual list ranking the best cities on the planet for expats to live in put the Bahraini capital in a surprising first place, and placed Paris near the bottom.
The InterNations 2017 survey of expatriates uncovered some surprising results from its 7,985 participants living in 40 countries.
Manama was well-ranked largely due to how easy it is for expats to integrate there: 92% of respondents to the survey said that living in the city without knowing Arabic is not difficult. Prague and Madrid rounded out the top-three.
Meanwhile, Paris received poor marks. The French capital had a middling quality of life according to the survey, but over two in five expats in Paris (43%) consider the local population unfriendly towards foreign residents. The city was third from the bottom, placing better than only Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Lagos, Nigeria.
The only city in Canada to make the list was Toronto, which was ranked 30th out of 51. Montreal was not ranked.
Participants rated more than 25 different aspects of urban life abroad on a scale of one to seven. The rating process took special consideration of a respondents' personal satisfaction and considered emotional topics and more factual aspects with the same weight.