As we have reported, we are very much interested into city rankings. Now, another one caught our attention. This time we found a ranking by monthly general interest family magazine Reader’s Digest. Although this ranking is two years old we would like to present it to you because it raises controversy.

In July 2006, Reader’s Digest published an investigation on the courtesy of 35 cities. They sent two undercover reporters, a man and a woman, from Reader’s Digest editions in 35 countries to assess the citizens of their most populous city. In each location they conducted three tests:

• They walked into public buildings 20 times behind people to see if they would hold the door open for us.
• They bought small items from 20 shops and recorded whether the sales assistants said "Thank you".
• They dropped a folder full of papers in 20 busy locations to see if anyone would help pick them up.

To compare the cities, they awarded one point for each positive outcome and nothing for a negative one, giving each city a maximum score of 60. They did not attempt a strict scientific survey; it was the world’s biggest real-life test of common courtesy, with more than 2,000 separate tests of actual behaviour.

Below, you can find the ranking of the most courteous to the least courteous - 35 major cities included in Reader’s Digest’s Global Courtesy Test. Figures reflect the percentage of people who passed in each city. When multiple cities had identical scores, they are listed in alphabetical order.

 
List of cities © Reader’s Digest

What do you think about this ranking? Do you agree? If you have ever experienced good or bad courtesy situations in a city, please share these experiences.

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