Which European countries are the most polite in the world?

The United Kingdom is considered the most polite country in Europe, according to a new survey.

But its European neighbors are not far behind, with more than half of the European Union countries among the 25 countries in the world rated as the most polite and welcoming to foreigners.

This survey, conducted by the American money transfer company Remitly, interviewed nearly 5,000 people from 26 countries to ask them which nations they consider to be the most well-mannered and how polite they consider themselves, in order to compare the global perception of politeness with how countries view their own courtesy.

To self-evaluate, participants answered questions about their own behavior, such as whether they treat strangers with respect, and received a score based on the level of agreement with each statement.

Unsurprisingly, overall ratings and self-perception were often different.

On a global scale, the United Kingdom was ranked as the third most polite country by those surveyed, behind Canada in second place and Japan in first.

According to the survey, this ranking is explained by certain social habits, such as the frequent use of “please” and “thank you” in daily life, self-deprecation, and respect for queuing. Ironically, respondents in the UK place themselves in the lower half of countries in terms of politeness. Perhaps the British are too polite to put themselves forward.

Similarly, Germany, considered by others as the fifth most polite country due to the importance placed on privacy, punctuality, and attention to others, only ranks 21st for perceived politeness.

Ironically, French respondents consider themselves the fifth most polite people, while the rest of the world ranks them only 19th in the global ranking.

As for Japan, the top favorite in the survey, its residents only rank themselves 25th for politeness, the second-to-last place among all surveyed countries.

However, the study authors point out that when it comes to self-assessment of politeness, less than one point separates the countries with the highest ratings from those with the lowest, showing that most people tend to consider themselves polite.

Here is the complete list of survey results:

[Translated with the help of artificial intelligence. Report a problem: [feedback-articles-en@euronews.com].]