Who are the sexiest, rudest, funniest people in Europe?

According to a Reader’s Digest survey, the Italians are the most popular and they are the sexist as well – maybe there’s a connection.

Italy is also the country Europeans would most like to live in, and Italian the nationality they would most like to be.

The British are top of the poll on two fronts. They have the best sense of humor, say fellow Europeans, who seem to judge the Britons by Basil Fawlty, Monty Python and Mr. Bean.

And Britons are thought to have contributed most to the world, with respondents citing football, medicine and industry among others as the reason.

The survey was carried out by Reader’s Digest magazine to mark the accession of ten new states to the European Union in May 2004.

It was felt a good time to ask Europeans what they felt about each other. To find out, the Digest dispatched researchers to 19 countries across Europe, from the UK to Russia, inviting nearly 4,000 respondents to comment on any country but their own.

They asked them questions like which Europeans they liked most and least, who were the sexiest, most efficient, who had the best sense of humor and the best food, and where they’d really like to live.

The answers – some of them surprising – were published in the July issue of the Digest. Italy came out of it smelling of roses, with Europeans in love with the country, its people and its food.

Some of the main ratings:

Sexiest – Italians, followed by Spain, then France
Least sexy – Belgians
Funniest – British
Least funny - Swiss
Most efficient – Germans
Rudest – Germans, with French second
Least rude – Norway and Switzerland
Most open-minded – Dutch
Favorite European city – Paris
Favorite country – Italy, with Spain second, France third

Some respondents’ comments:

Middle-aged Belgian woman – “The Germans make too much noise and are too chauvinistic.”
Young Dutch woman – “The English do not seem to know how to behave when they’re on holiday. All they do is drink and yell.”
Spanish shop assistant on Italians – “They party and have a great sense of humor.”
Young Briton on Italians – “They know they’re sexy, which is annoying, but it makes them even more attractive.”
Briton on contribution of Irish – “They gave the world Guinness.”
Elderly Swiss man on British contribution to world – “They created football.”

- July 1, 2004