Navigation on Foot Group

Getting lost in London is inevitable, according to research commissioned by Nokia - there are more people getting lost in London than anywhere else in the world, including cities like Bangkok and Beijing, which are nearly twice the size of London.

The findings come from one of the largest global navigation studies to date - 12,500 people in 13 countries world were asked about their sense of direction and navigational habits.

Research found that the numbers who found it impossible to navigate around the top 5 'lost cities' were:

• London - 10%
• Paris - 9%
• Bangkok - 5%
• Hong Kong - 5%
• Beijing - 4%

Moreover, when lost in London, don't ask locals for directions - 1-in-3 Londoners admit to deliberately giving people the wrong directions . .

Other snippets from the report:

• Over 25% of people now rely on online and mobile navigation tools to find their way around - 13% use a mobile phone as their primary navigation tool.
• The country with the world's best sense of direction is Germany, where a third claim to have never lost their way.  It is also the country with the highest reliance on satnav.
• One-in-10 women admit to not being able to read a traditional map - twice the number of men.
• One-in-5 believe a sense of direction is genetic and those that have a bad sense of direction are simply born that way.
• Having a good sense of direction is rare - 93% still get lost regularly, with the average person wasting 13 minutes each time they do.
• 30% blame their partners for getting lost - because they were fighting or shouting directions at them.
• One-in-4 claim they could not find their way without online maps and mobile satnav.
• One-in-10 Spanish consider a sense of direction matures with age - like fine wine.

When approached by strangers asking for directions, many people use iconic landmarks such as statues, churches and bridges as recognizable 'breadcrumbs' to a destination - but people in Britain prefer to use local pubs to signpost directions to others.

The report suggests that the end of the traditional map and compass is fast approaching, with map-reading skills across the world generally considered poor.

Details from Nokia