Survey Dispels Many European Myths

A new survey by the IP Group, the European media sales house with offices in 13 countries, can provide a wealth of data on individual countries or define “the average European.”

This individual does not of course exist, but when all aspects of the survey – work, leisure time, household activities,media consumption, etc – are considered it is the French and the Dutch who are nearest to the European average and the Greeks and Poles who are least “European”. The UK comes 15th of the 20 countries surveyed and the Danes 18th. The survey was carried out via 9,774 face to face interviews (all 15+), which built a quarter hour record of yesterday. Weekend data was filled in on questionnaires. The end result is 2m pieces of information.

Media consumption put GB at the top of the TV viewing chart, but well behind the Germans when it came to newspaper reading.Between 9pm and 10pm an average 232 million Europeans are glued to TV. 83% of Europeans are satisfied with life – 95% in Denmark but only 80% in France and 58% in Hungary.The Swiss are most satisfied with their love life – the Brits, French and Germans express a below average level of satisfaction. The survey also considers childcare, public transport,reading of books,sport gardening, personal hygiene, eating out gardening and DIY. Any data can be cross-referenced against age, class, profession and time of day (weekday or weekend). Countries are broken down further into 79 European regions. There ought to be useful background here for anyone involved in media planning in Europe. Data is free.

IP GROUP (London office) : 071-580 5420 Contact: Dagmar Brandenstein