The Danes and Swedes are the best informed
This percentage is below the average of Europeans (40%) who state that they are adequately informed about scientific and technological developments.
The Scandinavians have the best information (Denmark 65% and Sweden 61%), the Balkans have the worst (Bulgaria and Romania 25% each), while information is somewhat better in Cyprus (37%).
Slightly more than half of Europeans (53%) say they are interested in science and technology, a percentage that is up 8% compared to 2011. This development shows that European citizens are showing an increasing interest in scientific and technological developments, both because they have gradually become more familiar with these issues, and because they understand the great special importance that the science and technology sector has for the development of a country and the everyday lives of people.
The greatest scientific and technological interest is recorded in Sweden (77%) and the least in the Czech Republic (34%). More generally, the “Eurobarometer” reveals another gap between the inhabitants of N.W. Europe and those of S.E. Europe, in terms of both their knowledge and their interest in specific issues. It is not, after all, a coincidence that most innovations originate from the group of Nordic countries.
The survey also reveals that the less informed the residents of a country are about these issues, the more indifferent they are to whether there will be a relevant public debate and whether they themselves will be involved in decisions on scientific and technological issues, which have various impacts (social, economic, health, etc.). Thus, in countries such as Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, etc. the majority of citizens state that they do not need to intervene in relevant decisions. At a pan-European level, however, the majority (55%) call for a public debate on scientific and technological issues.
Moreover, when asked whether “we are now relying too much on science and not enough on (religious) faith”, the more traditional Mediterranean countries show higher levels of agreement than the northern ones. At a European level, 39% of citizens agree, 32% disagree and 25% are neutral (the lower the educational level of a European, the more likely they are to agree that faith has been overtaken by science).
On the same wavelength, almost two in three Europeans (62%) are concerned that “science is changing our lives too quickly.” On the other hand, the vast majority (77%) believe that science and technology have a positive impact on society, making our lives easier, more comfortable, healthier and with more opportunities for future generations.
Most Europeans agree that an interest in science and technology improves young people's job prospects (59%), their culture (72%) and their ability to act as informed and responsible citizens (68%). However, two out of three Europeans (65%) believe that their government does too little to stimulate young people's interest in science. In Greece, the corresponding figure is 78%, the second highest in the EU after Spain (83%).
The most frequent source of information on scientific and technological issues is television (65%), followed by the internet (35%) and newspapers (33%). 47% of people in the EU declare that they have acquired knowledge of science and technology in secondary or tertiary education (in Greece the corresponding percentage is 51%: specifically, 33% in high school, 16% in university and college and 2% elsewhere).
The "Eurobarometer" survey was funded by the EU's 7th Framework Programme for Research, as the European Commission's central goal is to get more and more Europeans personally involved.
