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Sweden ranked the world's best country for immigrants to live in

Justin Trudeau, in second-placed Canada, says 'Diversity is our strength' as UK sits 17th

Jon Sharman
Tuesday 11 July 2017 09:31 BST
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Sweden has been ranked the world's best country for immigrants, ahead of Canada and Switzerland.

Australia and Germany rounded out the top five destination countries, according to US News and World Report.

The site surveyed more than 21,000 people around the world for its "Best Countries" survey and some of the data was used to build the immigrant list.

Criteria included how economically stable a country was, income equality and whether it was "a place I would live".

Sweden's strong social welfare system appears to have been a factor, US News reported, and its analysis found Sweden's decision to take in large numbers of refugees had seen its society diversify.

They account for about 10 per cent of its 9.8 million population, the site said.

Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has been vocal about the benefits migrants, and particularly refugees, bring the country. Earlier this year he said: "Diversity is our strength."

Canada is due to allow 300,000 immigrants to enter in 2017.

The US hosts many more migrants than any other country, but after the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, Australia has the biggest migrant proportion of population, at 28.2 per cent.

The next most-favourable countries were Norway, the US, the Netherlands, Finland and Denmark.

The UK only made it to 17th place, amid strong immigration-related rhetoric around Brexit. On US News' "Best Countries" list, however, it stood at number three.

The Independent revealed last year that the number of Britons applying for Swedish citizenship had more than doubled after the Brexit referendum.

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