Nokia Maps survey results from around the world

Nokia Nokia

by Clinton Jeff | on November 27th, 2008 | 2 comments

Nokia conversations posted the results of the Nokia Maps survey today.

Some of the results are really interesting :

Lost cities
• London is the most confusing city, with one in ten (10%) people finding it impossible to navigate around
• Followed closely by Paris (9%), Bangkok (5%), Hong Kong (5%) and Beijing (4%), making up the top five ‘lost cities’ on the planet

A sense of direction
• 93% of the world get lost regularly
• An average person wastes 13 minutes when lost
• Germany is the country with the world’s best sense of direction, with a third (34%) of people claiming to have never lost their way
• One in five (18%) people believe a sense of direction is genetic
• One in ten (9%) Spaniards consider a sense of direction matures with age, like fine wine
• One in ten (11%) people miss a job interview, an important business meeting or flight because they lost their way
• Affecting people’s personal lives, one in ten (9%) Brazilians miss out on a date because they got lost en-route
• Indian men are the most likely people in the world to miss the birth of their child (2%)

Laying the blame
• Almost one in two (49%) people get lost when rushing or when they are in busy crowded spaces during commuter rush hour
• Nearly a third (30%) of people blame their partner for getting them lost
• A third (29%) of people admit to frequently losing their way when they are tired
• The most popular excuse for getting lost by Asians is bad weather (24%)

Digital navigation overtakes traditional maps
• One in ten (8%) people admit they can’t read a map
• One in ten women (11%) are unable to read a traditional map, twice the number of men (5%)
• More than a quarter (26%) of people surveyed rely on online and mobile navigation tools to find their way around
• Germany is the country with the highest reliance on satellite navigation (48%)
• 13% of people use a mobile phone as their primary navigation tool
• Nearly a quarter (22%) of Italians rely on mobile navigation devices to find their way

Keeping up to date with the ever changing landscape
• When approached by strangers asking for directions, many people use iconic landmarks (18%) such as statues, churches and bridges as recognizable ‘breadcrumbs’ to a destination
• People in Britain prefer to use local pubs to signpost directions to others (18%)
• The Chinese typically use skyscrapers to give directions (10%)
• Over a third (38%) of the world rely on other people for directions to get from A to B
• Almost one in two people (43%) admit to giving the wrong directions on purpose
• Russians have an alternative motive when it comes to asking for directions, with one in ten (9%) using it as an excuse to flirt

Read the whole post over on Nokia conversations.

Heh I’m pretty sure an average Indian city would be more confusing than London though :P

-Teh Cj

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Author Description

Clinton Jeff

Clinton is currently based in New Delhi, India and is executive editor for UnleashThePhones. He is responsible for all editorial decisions, and covers all forms of Mobile and mobile-related accessories. Cj is addicted to caffeine, social media, and technology. Always up for a good conversation, you can reach him through the contact form, his website, on Google Plus