15 May 2008

Majority of Brits unable to identify half countries in Europe

Nearly two thirds (63%) of British adults can identify less than half of the countries in Europe, according to new research.

Many British adults could not find the most popular European destinations on a map, including Switzerland (45%), Spain (15%), France (11%) and Italy (8%) even though the majority have visited at least one of these countries on holiday.

The most popular European destinations that people love to visit...but don't know where they are:

1. 81% couldn't locate Costa Brava
2. 63% couldn't locate Costa del Sol
3. 53% couldn't locate The Algarve
4. 37% couldn't locate Ibiza
5. 28% couldn't locate Normandy

The least known European destinations (percentage of adults who could not locate the following countries on a world map):

1. Lithuania (81%)
2. Slovakia (80%)
3. Romania (78%)
4. Ukraine (71%)
5. Croatia (71%)

More than half (62%) of UK adults confess that they don't even check a map to see where in Europe they are going before travelling to their destination.

Sixteen 16 per cent (the equivalent of seven million) admitted that they can't even remember when they looked at a map, eight per cent of adults (the equivalent of nearly four million) last looked at a map when helping their child with their homework and four per cent confessed that the last time that they looked at a map of Europe was in a school geography lesson.

Sixty per cent thought there were less than 30 countries in Europe and 19% didn't realise that Britain is part of the European Union.

Many respondents to the LateRooms.com survey had not even heard of some countries - more than one in ten (11%) believe that Iceland isn't in Europe - eight per cent thought it was part of North America - and 13% think that Moldova
is somewhere in Asia, South America or Africa.

Tony Walsh, development director at LateRooms.com, said: "With Europe being such a popular holiday destination for us Brits, it's quite astonishing that so many people were unable to identify popular holiday resorts, such as the Costa Brava and Costa Del Sol.

"The increase in budget airlines has meant travelling to an array of destinations is a lot easier - meaning hopping on and off transport without actually looking on a map to see where you're going is becoming the norm. As the research shows, a lot of us clearly need to brush up on our geography."

by Phil Davies