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Nothing makes you realize that you're not at home more than when you enter a bathroom in a different country. You suddenly comprehend that not everyone cleans up the same way. A poll conducted in July on how various countries bathe highlights the differences across the globe. Interestingly, Americans' cleaning habits are surprisingly average.
The survey, by market research provider Euromonitor, polled around 6,600 consumers from around the world, asking if they shower, bathe, or sponge-bathe. (The countries: Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States.)
The report, “Personal Appearances: Global Consumer Survey Results on Apparel, Beauty and Grooming," shows that Americans take more showers than people in China, Britain, and Japan, but not as many as those in Brazil and Colombia.
When it comes to full immersion in water, people in Indonesia, Japan, and India lead the list of bath takers.
A Euromonitor poll from July found that Americans are fairly average when it comes to hygiene. Among the 16 regions surveyed, Americans attested to showering more frequently than the Chinese, Brits, and Japanese, where respondents said they take about five showers per week, but not nearly as often as people in Brazil and Colombia, where people seemingly sometimes take more than one shower per day.
Perhaps the warm climates play a role—though that wouldn't explain the habits of balmy, relatively-infrequently-bathing Turkey and Spain. It's interesting, too, that in most countries people don't shampoo every time they shower. Mexicans and Japanese people come closest to fully sanitizing their hair each time.
In general, the world's women shower more than men. The exception, according to a 2008 study by hygiene-products company SCA, is Sweden, the only country surveyed where men were more likely to shower every day than women were: