It's no wonder they likely find Canada so welcoming. It has an accessible language, diverse culture and low levels of government corruption, says Patricia Linderman, editor of Tales from a Small Planet, an online newsletter for expats.

It also has other expats. This is important, Linderman says, since even the most gracious locals already have busy, established lives and can be unwilling to put in the effort to befriend someone they know could leave within several years.

"I'm not suggesting that it's good to live in an 'expat ghetto'. It's immensely rewarding to live among local people and make friends with them," she says.

Linderman says other expats are important because they share similar needs like making friends and adjusting to life in a new country. They also understand the frustrations daily life brings.

"A significant expat community," she says, "also means that there will be at least one truly international school, expat support groups and amenities like English-language bookstores."

Joining a recreational sports team or community group can help speed integration. Almost half of respondents reported taking this action, with Germany leading the pack at 65%. Churches, organizations and schools provide good places to forge friendships with people who possess common interests and beliefs.

"When I was an expat in Hong Kong, I became a member of the local football club and found it was a fantastic way of meeting like-minded people," says Paul Fay, head of marketing and communication at HSBC Bank International, of his expat experience in Hong Kong. "Particularly in Asia joining these clubs works to your advantage."

Australia scored high in friendliness but ranked last when it came to joining a group. That's because expats in Australia tend to be younger, with 51% in the 18-34 age group, and may not need organized groups to facilitate meeting new people.

Groupthink is less of an issue in Germany, since meeting people there is relatively easy.

"I'm not surprised that Germany is a popular choice whether you are going for a short-term cultural experience or a long-term job assignment," says Robin Pascoe of expatexpert.com, a Web site for families living and working abroad. "Germany has fantastic international schools for the kids of expats."

Germany is also considered middle-of-the-road culturally, according to Neil Payne, who works for Kwintessential, a translation services company in the U.K. Anyone you stop on the street can talk to you in English, he says. What's more, "working conditions are also very well respected and there is a nice delineation for work life and social life, which we don't have in England."

China,India and United Arab Emirates scored low overall because cultural differences from the West made integration difficult.

This doesn't surprise Payne.

"Our experience is that people do struggle and find it hard to adapt," he says. "It's the psychological difference: so far removed from what Western expats are used to."

Still, says Fay, don't eliminate a country simply because of a language barrier.

"Cantonese and Mandarin can be very challenging for Western expatriates," he says, "though for those who are resilient and do invest, it can be an incredible experience."

The Philippines ranks sixth, Sri Lanka 12th and Lesotho, Mozambique and Cuba roll in at 16th, 18th and 25th respectively--all ahead of the U.S., at 27th place, and Canada, at 31st.

Huh?

To be sure, the study doesn't claim that these countries have high levels of opportunity or freedom overall--just that, while Lesothoans may be poor and Cubans oppressed, men and women are these things equally. But I still consider some of the findings dubious. My impressionistic takes are just that--impressionistic. But here are what some of them tell me.

Consider the placement of France, a country I lived in for two years, at 15th place--12 spots ahead of the U.S. I don't buy it. Or rather, while I'm prepared to believe the report when it says that in two of its four categories, health and political empowerment, women in France have achieved greater parity with men than in the U.S., I don't feel it.

France is a society obsessed with correctness. There's a correct way to speak, a correct way to dress and a correct cheese to eat with a bottle of Sancerre in the month of June. Which has its charm, but is also part of the reason that even as women advanced professionally, France never experienced their revolt against expectation.

While perhaps taken to excess in North America, the U.S. strain of bra-burning feminism, the one that said "I will not look pretty or behave properly," achieved some refreshing results. Like American men, American women have much more permission to self-invent than citizens of most of the rest of the world.

France, like many European countries, has imposed gender quotas for political office holders at various levels of government--in effect affirmative action for women. (Which is odd, because the government has a history of rejecting affirmative action for minorities despite obvious discrimination.) And yet French legal rigidity in other areas makes social change difficult.

For example, you can't really buy groceries on a Sunday in Paris because of labor laws. Likewise in Germany--11th place for equality--it wasn't until 2006 that the government did away with a federal law banning stores from staying open after 8 p.m. on weekdays. It's pretty much impossible to have a two-career family if you can't buy groceries in the evening. Heavy meddling in the economy reduces everyone's options.

I was also surprised to see how high South Africa scored--22nd--given the number of times I've read about the country's high rape statistics; at least one study has reported that it leads the world.

South Africa ranked highly--9th place--in just one of the four categories, political empowerment, which brought up its overall rank. Underlying that score was a high ratio of women to men among government ministers, at 0.81 to 1. Outgoing President Thabo Mbeki may have admirably led the way in appointing female ministers, but maybe such high-level political participation shouldn't be weighted as heavily when measuring equality. There's no parity when basic safety for women doesn't exist.

One final observation: I was surprised that the Philippines, at 6th place, beat out not just the U.S. but uber-egalitarian Denmark and the Netherlands, places where it's unusual for the guy to so much as pick up the check. The Philippines gets top marks for female heads of state, to be sure--prior to current President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo there was Corazon Aquino--and is among the minority of countries where female unemployment is a little lower than male unemployment.

But that statistic made me think of all the Filipinas around the globe working as nurses and housekeepers. Women are the country's expatriate workers, remitting their earnings back home, some lucky enough to be legally employed in well-to-do democracies--and some toiling with virtually no rights in places like the Gulf states. Certainly, they get a status boost from being their families' breadwinners. But is exporting the female population as labor a sign of equality?

As far as measuring what it claims to measure, the Gender Gap Index is sober enough. But true equality may be too slippery to compute. Social pressure and cultural attitudes are impossible to quantify but still have a dramatic effect on one's quality of life.

As totted up by the WEF, I'd rather live in a less equal U.S. than a more equal South Africa, Cuba ... or France.