Consumers often seeing fake news in the EU 2022, by country

Encountering fake news is, for the majority of European citizens, a common occurrence. According to a 2022 survey across all 27 European member states, 70 percent fully agreed or tended to agree that they often came across news and information that misrepresented reality or was false. Fake news was most often encountered by those from Malta, with 90 percent of Maltese participants saying they often saw it. In fact, the share of respondents who often saw fake news was 80 percent of higher in 10 of the 27 EU member states, including Luxembourg, Ireland, and Spain to name but a few.

Fake news consumption by country

In France, 85 percent of people said they saw false news often, whereas in neighboring Germany the share was significantly lower at just 57 percent. Responses from Scandinavia yielded similar results for each country, although Denmark's figures were more similar to Finland and bordering Germany than its neighbor Sweden.

Trust in media

With the ever-growing presence of fake news in our daily lives, we are starting to think more about the information we can trust. Levels of trust for different types of media are changing, with fewer people trusting the internet and online social networks, and more people trusting in the written press.