Study: U.S. Cities With the Friendliest Neighbors

With COVID cases spiking across the U.S., more and more people are returning home to work remotely. It’s more critical than ever to practice social distancing, but with so much more time spent at home, the relationships we have with our neighbors has taken on a renewed importance. Improvenet took notice and conducted a study to see how folks are getting along with their neighbors during the pandemic.

The online provider of home improvement services polled some 2,500 Americans, and their findings are extremely heartening. Of those who responded, 69 percent have gotten to know their neighbors better during the pandemic and 65 percent have made an effort to be more friendly than usual.

According to Improvenet, the top five cities for neighbors socializing during the pandemic are: Chicago, Portland, San Diego, Los Angeles and Indianapolis—in that order.

Another interesting takeaway from the study is that a majority of respondents (57 percent) say neighbors have helped to fill the void of visiting with friends and family during the pandemic.

Below is a chart, provided by Improvenet, that lists the major cities where neighbors socialize with each other most frequently:

Credit: Improvenet

You'll notice that, although Chicago topped the overall list of top cities to socialize with your neighbor during the pandemic, Los Angeles actually tops the chart above. This discrepancy is because the overall list also takes into account factors like cities where people offered their neighbors help and where neighbors socialized with one another for more than two hours.

To view the full results of the study, click here.