Is the UK one of the world’s laziest countries?

The top five laziest countries are Portugal (230 lazy points), Luxembourg (220 lazy points), Belgium (190 lazy points), Turkey (170 lazy points) and Italy (140 points).

If you enjoy taking things easy, perhaps the country for you is Portugal, scoring the highest number of points in the ‘lazy’ index (230). The country was given the highest points for Insufficient Activity and it scored some of the highest points for Labour Force Participation Rate and Food Delivery Popularity, based on its population. The highest scores were given to the places within the top 10% of that sample size.

Based on that methodology, the countries scoring the least Hours Worked are Denmark, Germany, Norway, and the Netherlands with 10 points each. Perhaps this is no surprise as the countries mentioned above are known for working for less time but more efficiently, putting a better price on happiness than anything else!

When it comes to Insufficient Activity, the countries ranking the highest are Portugal, Colombia, and the Czech Republic with 300 index points each. At the other end of the scale, the most active countries are the United States, Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland.

The countries with the highest search volumes for laziest countries related keywords

As part of the study, TheDozyOwl.co.uk looked at Google search volumes for the following keywords: ‘why can’t I wake up’, ‘lounger to buy’, ‘lounger’, ‘tips to feel more awake’, ‘how to get out of work’, ‘how to work less’, ‘easy jobs’ and ‘takeout food’.

The countries with the highest volume of lazy searches are Denmark, Germany, Norway, and the Netherlands, scoring -10 points each.

Why cook when you can order?

When it comes to food delivery popularity, the countries that prefer ordering to cooking the most are The United Kingdom, Ireland, and Denmark, scoring 200 index points each!

Which are the least laziest countries?

Taking into consideration all factors mentioned above, the countries scoring the least on the ‘lazy index’ are Switzerland (-330 points), Sweden (-290 points), Japan (-290 points), Finland (-190 points) and Spain (-180 points).

Methodology:

1. Used the 37 OECD member countries as a sample: https://www.oecd.org/about/document/list-oecd-member-countries.htm .
2. A list of lazy search phrases was found. The search phrases were translated into each country’s official language using https://smodin.me/translate-one-text-into-multiple-languages. For countries with multiple official languages, only the most prolific was considered.
3. Ahrefs was used to find search volumes for each country. Both English and the local language counterpart were searched. Whichever generated greater volume was used.
4. Each country’s most popular food delivery service was found. Search volumes were also found for the respective delivery firm.
5. Hours worked data was sourced from https://data.oecd.org/emp/hours-worked.htm and is defined as the total number of hours actually worked per year divided by the average number of people in employment per year.
6. Labour force participation rate was sourced from https://data.oecd.org/emp/labour-force-participation-rate.htm#indicator-chart. It is the labour force divided by the total working-age population.
7. Average steps data was sourced from https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/4047873/the-laziest-countries-in-the-world-have-been-revealed-and-heres-where-britain-came-in-the-rankings/#:~:text=Stanford%20University%20researchers%20collected%20smartphone,Arabia%2C%20Malaysia%20and%20the%20Philippines . It shows the average daily steps taken (2017).
8. Insufficient activity is sourced from https://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.A893?lang=en. The WHO defines insufficient physical activity as not meeting their recommended levels. Adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity throughout the week.
9. To allow for comparison across different factors, each variable was ranked in percentile terms relative to the other OECD members and assigned scores from 10 to 100. For example, South Korea, Mexico and Greece ranked in the top 10th percentile for hours worked. Therefore, they were assigned scores of 100. Netherlands and Germany ranked in the bottom 10th percentile and therefore were assigned scores of 10 each.
10. Each ranking score was then multiplied by the corresponding index valuation. To find the final scores, the sum of all the values for each country was found. The total score demonstrates the overall laziness based on the above factors.