Swedish singles shun New Year revelry

Swedish singles prefer a quiet night in on New Year's Eve while their Danish neighbours plump for a night on the tiles, a new survey of European attitudes to pleasure has shown.

• Swedish study shows women prefer older men (4 Dec 08)
• Swedes tight-fisted in quest for love (8 Oct 08)
• Study: Swedish docs dig one another (19 Sep 08)

Swedish singles prefer a quiet night of contemplative reflection on the year that has past while Danes, and European neighbours in Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland, prefer to celebrate the new year to the sound of champagne corks popping. At least according to a new survey by dating site Parship of how New Year's Eve celebrations vary according to nationality.

While 35 percent of single Swedish men and 32 percent of single Swedish women responded that they planned a quiet night in, no Danish single men and only 11 percent of Danish women intended to do the same.

The broader purpose of the survey was to chart the connection between nationality and the pursuit of pleasure. Pleasure was defined broadly and extended beyond sex and sinful pursuits.

Food habits and lazy days in bed featured in the survey and here the conscientious Swedes scored poorly in their ability to enjoy the finer things in life.

The results have been interpreted by psychologist Madeleine Gauffin as an indication of the endurance of Sweden's Lutheran heritage despite the country's sense of itself as an emphatically secular country, Metro reports.

The survey also gave an indication that within Sweden and between the genders, attitudes can vary greatly. Women in Dalarna, Jönköping and Gotland professed a more indulgent attitude to pleasure than their man folk, while in Södermanland, Uppland and Halland, the men were the more likely bons viveurs.

Singles in Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland topped the pleasure charts and according to the Parship survey are those most able and willing to live life for its pleasures.