The cliché about the questionable cleanliness of the French is tough. An Ifop survey carried out among European audiences shows, however, that we are far from being the worst students in terms of hygiene. Decryption.
From Pépé le polecat to the kings of France, the stereotype of the dirty and filthy Frenchman is tough. According to an Ifop survey that we revealed on Tuesday, the hygiene of the French is however far from being worse than that of our European neighbors. We explain to you.
On the frequency of daily showers, 76% of French people carry out a complete toilet “at least once a day”. Conversely, according to the study, barely more than one in two Italians wash daily in 2022 (53%).
The international survey on the hygiene of Europeans
“Partial toilet”
Please note, however, that this low rate of daily washing among our transalpine neighbors is not symptomatic of poor hygiene, but rather stems from “a broader practice of ‘partial’ washing, and, to a lesser extent, less frequent use of the bath”, analyzes François Kraus, director of the political pole of Ifop.
In detail, it appears that French women are cleaner than their male counterparts, since 80% of them wash daily in 2022, compared to 73% for men. And this practice has only increased over the years: in 1951, the magazine Elle created controversy by highlighting that 48% of French women admitted that they did not wash daily.
Generational divide
But if the French are rather exemplary on the showers, they are on the other hand much less so on their sartorial hygiene. It is indeed in France that the regular change of underwear is the least widespread. 73% of French men admit to changing them regularly, compared to 82% in Spain, 77% in Germany, 77% in Italy and 75% in the United Kingdom.
On this subject, the Ifop survey points to a clear generational divide, with seniors “who appear by far to be the least rigorous in terms of changing underwear”: 39% of Europeans over 70 do not change no underwear every day, twice the rate measured among young people under 25 (20%).
Hygiene in the face of confinement
“The social withdrawal linked to confinement has been accompanied – particularly among isolated people – by a relative deterioration in body and clothing hygiene, confirming the hypothesis that the management of one’s level of cleanliness remains determined by taking into account account of the gaze of others on his bodily appearance”, note the authors of the study. It appears that the confinements have impacted the hygiene of the French: in April 2020, 61% of men declared that they washed daily, compared to 71% two months earlier. Ditto for women, with a drop of 7 points in two months (74% during confinement, against 81% pre-Covid).
However, this relaxation of personal hygiene has only been temporary, the frequency of washing returning in 2022 to the level it had before the crisis, for both men and women.