Americans, did you even for once feel your town has too many unfriendly people ? And that you feel like moving to some place less populated ?

26 comments

1. No its the tourist and snowbirds that are usually pricks. They leave on their own

2. I don’t see how population and friendliness are related. I hear all the time that “big city=jerks” but I just have no personal experience myself to back that up.

3. They don’t have to be unfriendly, there can just be too many people.

4. I often feel like moving to a less populated area, but certainly not because people are unfriendly in my current city. People tend to be pretty friendly everywhere in my experience, and that’s coming from a native New Englander.

   If it wasn’t for job and money constraints, I’d move someplace where I can have a a very large garden and enough neighboring forest (probably public conservation land) to go for a hike.

5. I grew up in a heavily populated place and I feel like people were nicer there than where I live now, which is much less populated. The smaller the town, the less welcoming it is, in my experience. Anyone new is an interloper and their very existence is ruining the character of the town. It’s a really stupid/shitty attitude.

6. no

7. I don’t want to move to a less populated city, but I can agree that there are too many unfriendly people here.

8. I think we have the perfect amount of unfriendly people. You need balance in life.

9. I haven’t ever contemplated moving because people are unfriendly, no. I do like less populated areas, but that’s not because people are unfriendly, it’s because crowds and traffic make me jumpy. I like quiet.

10. Not really.

    I lived in NYC for more than a decade before buying a home in the town I grew up in. I love my town and people being unfriendly wasn’t a factor in leaving so much as schools were.

11. I haven’t noticed any place I have lived being particularly unfriendly.

12. Sometimes I wonder what life would be like in a city that’s a little less densely populated so I can have a garage but I don’t think I’ve ever genuinely entertained the idea of moving.

    A garage and living some place where winter doesn’t exist has some appeal. The pricks of NYC don’t bother me one bit. People usually tend to keep out of my way when I’m out on the street

13. I have never experienced a place where I felt like was generally unfriendly. People are usually friendly or at least neutral from my experience. I guess it’s if you’re going to interact with someone why be unfriendly and rude, you know?

14. No. I like living in a large city. And despite the reputation, people here in NYC are actually pretty friendly.

15. No, not at all. I want more housing here, the more the merrier. People are fucking friendly here, they’re downright god damned pleasant

16. Phoenix? Eh, sort of. If you’re the type of person who needs to be around people 24-7, you might find your time here to be mixed.

    If you are the type who wants to be left alone but at least respect the people around you, you’ll do excellent here.

17. I’ve lived in several states and cities-New England, the upper midwest, and the southern US, and the only place where people were actually unfriendly was in the southern US. Everywhere else people were very friendly and kind.

    The area that was the least friendly (the southern US) was also less populated compared to the other areas.

    In my experiences, people in cities are friendlier than people in rural areas. People in rural areas view anyone new or different with suspicion.

18. Population has nothing to do with friendliness. Check black/brown history… less populated towns are as bad as big cities.

19. Less population doesn’t mean more friendly generally speaking.

    If you’re liberal you’re not going to be too happy living in Montana, likewise if you’re conservative you’re not going to be too happy living in New York City.

    Of course you can just ignore everybody and be happy anywhere.

20. I grew up in the suburban Bay Area. Everyone felt rather indifferent. Not unfriendly, but not overly friendly. You just knew the people you knew and not the ones you didn’t. Some neighborhoods seemed more cohesive than others, but I wouldn’t describe it as an overtly friendly or unfriendly environment.

    I now live in a small town which is more explicitly friendly. That’s not why I moved here, given that I’m fairly introverted myself. But it can be nice to run into people at community events and generally know who other people are.

21. In Miami, definitely. In Massachusetts, never. Not what the states reputations would suggest, but there you have it. Massachusetts is kind but not nice, but people are friendly. Florida is neither and the people are not friendly.

22. Where I live, I’d say it’s a pretty mixed bag of friendly or unfriendly people.

    I will say after visiting my hometown for the first time in several years, it doesn’t seem as friendly as it used to be. It seems like it lost that small town feel in general and traded it in for something more snobby.

    I will say if you move from a big city to a rural community, you will probably be given the cold shoulder at first.

23. I live in a very rural town of about 200 people, there’s quite a few unfriendly people here too

24. I live in a poor area of a city now and what strikes me about the area is that it just seems like people don’t care. More litter in the streets, loud music and cars in residential neighborhoods, and low voter turnout. I understand that if you’re poor you might not have the luxury of being able to care about these things but it’s still a bit of a shock for me coming from a smallish middle-upper middle class town.

25. I have lived in seven different states. I have lived in the south, in the northeast, the west coast, and in flyover country. Cities from 2000 people up to Boston. Never noticed any difference in how friendly people were.

26. I’ve only lived in Dallas and Austin and have never felt that way. Recently moved from Downtown Dallas to a nearby suburb and have noticed people are less ‘closed off’.

    I don’t know if I’d necessarily say people are friendlier, but it’s been an adjustment getting used to people being a bit more in my business than I’m used to. My experience in the city is that people are also friendly, but have more of a wall up around them which is not so much the case in the suburbs.