Britain is world's second most potty-mouthed nation

Telegraph

26-05-2025

Data show that Americans use profanity for 0.036 per cent of all words, 44 per cent more often than Britons do, with a rate of 0.025 per cent.
However, Australians, known for a wide acceptance of swear words as normal parlance, came only third, at 0.022 per cent.
'Some may find it disappointing, but the research found the United States and Great Britain ranked ahead of Australia in terms of using vulgar language online,' said Dr Martin Schweinberger, the Australian study author.
'One possible explanation is that Australians are more conservative when they write online but not so much when they are face to face. Australians really see vulgarity, swearing and slang as part of our culture – we're very invested in it.'
'Vulgarity very sparingly'
Bangladesh, Ghana, Tanzania and Hong Kong were found to be the most polite, with less than 0.01 per cent of all words studied being classified as swearing.
However, the study also found that while the overall use of swear words is less than one in 4,500 on average, they are found almost everywhere at least once. In the UK, for example, one in 10 web pages studied contained at least one form of swear word.
'This finding is quite notable, as it suggests that while people use vulgarity very sparingly, the use of vulgar elements in language is highly common with speakers being aware of the discursive functions that the use of vulgarity fulfils,' the study authors wrote.
Analysis also found that the US is the biggest proponent of the f-word, with it coming into use more than 80 times per million.
Britons were again second, at 60 uses per million words.
The study also found unique variants of swear words that were more popular in some countries than others.
'Deep national attachment'
For example, the misspelt version of the f-word used in Ireland was found to be used 10 times as often as expected, making it the curse used the most often of any nationality.
They add: 'The present results, while confirming high rates of vulgarity in Australian web data, do not support the view that the role of colloquialisation in Australian English is stronger in Australian English compared to British and American English.
'In fact, the United States, often associated with protestant puritanism, Christian fervour and prudishness, shows the highest rates of vulgarity in online discourse, followed by Great Britain.' Australians might well be disheartened when they discover that they are not the top users of profanity among English-speaking countries.
'Their deep national attachment to the vernacular dates back to the original mix of slang, dialect and underworld jargon that gave rise to Australian English — fuelled by anti-authoritarian sentiment, the colloquial part of the language expanded to become the feature that best distinguished the established citizen (or old chum) from the stranger (or new chum).
'Australia's love of vulgarity, and swear words in particular, is very evident in the offline public life of these words.'
The scientists argue that it is possible Australians speak more swear words than they write, so the extent of their oral bad language may not be seen in the study. The study was published in the journal Lingua.