Across the West, most people are now watching video content as they eat their dinner
A new YouGov survey of more than 13,000 adults in 12 Western countries examines how household dining practices compare.
Where are people most likely to eat apart from their household?
While dining is typically regarded as a communal experience, Americans are the most likely from the countries surveyed to eat separately from other members of their household. Of those Americans who live with at least one other person in their home, 27% say they eat either in a different room from them or at a different time.
One in five Canadians (22%) likewise dine apart from others in their home, as do a similar number of Britons (21%). The practice is less common in other parts of Europe – only 9-11% of those in Denmark, Italy, France and Sweden who co-habit say they don’t eat with their fellow residents.
Eating at the dining table is still the most widespread routine – but many use the sofa
The traditional practice of eating dinner at a dedicated dining table is still the most common practice across the West, but in Britain in particular it is clinging on by a thread.
Fewer than half of Britons (45%) say they eat their dinner at a dining table, the lowest for any country surveyed – although Americans come close (47%).
By contrast, in Italy as many as 92% still say they eat their main evening meal at the dining table.
Brits are by far the most likely to say they eat dinner on a sofa or armchair, with 42% saying so, making the practice about as widespread in the UK as eating at the dining table.
Sofa-dining is also substantially more commonplace in the UK than any other country, although sizeable numbers of people also eat from their living room furniture in Canada, Australia, the US and Sweden (30-32%)
Video content has become an integral part of dinnertime around the world
While dinner used to be seen as a time for family and partners to converse together, watching something on TV or a digital device is now a central feature.
Spaniards are the most likely to watch something while eating their main evening meal, with 81% saying so.
Australians and Italians are the next most likely to say so, at 74% and 72% respectively, with around two thirds of French people (67%), Britons (67%) and Americans (66%) also staring at the moving pictures as they eat their dinner.
Germans and Danes are the least likely to watch TV or internet video when eating dinner, but this still applies to 49-50% in each nation.
What do you think about eating at the sofa, dinnertime etiquette in general, and everything else? Have your say, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.
Photo: Getty
