LONDON — Are you handy enough that if a lightbulb went out in your home you’d be able to change it? Believe it or not, one in five people aren’t so skilled. In fact, a new survey of people in the United Kingdom finds not only do about 20 percent of people not know how to change a bulb — the same number aren’t sure how to boil an egg, either.
The British insurance company Aviva recently released their annual Home Report which detailed, among numerous findings about how people do work around the house, relatively common tasks that people encounter. The company surveyed 2004 people across the UK in February and March about their habits and roles at home.
In addition to just one in five not being able to change a lightbulb or boil an egg, the survey found that nearly a third of the participants couldn’t cook any meal on the fly. And if someone were to spill a portion of their meal on their clothes or on the floor, only 59 percent would know how to get rid of the resulting stain.
Only 37 percent could change a flat tire.
The findings were even surprising to the folks behind the study.
“As a nation we tend to take pride in our ability to do things ourselves in and around the home, so it’s a surprise to see there could be a skills gap in places,” says Aviva Propositions Director Adam Beckett in a press release. “That said, we also know that people lead busy lives, so while we enjoy doing things ourselves, we also appreciate the opportunity to leave things to a professional from time to time, particularly with some of the more challenging jobs.”
Interestingly, while 50 percent of those surveyed said they learned how to do a home task on their by trial and error, plenty of people are turning to the internet for help, especially millennials. The study found four in 10 people aged 25 and under prefer learning do-it-yourself chores online. That’s more than twice the number in the age group who turn to an actual book for help.
Here’s a look at the polled tasks and the number of people who indicated they could successfully complete them:
| Task | Percentage who feel confident doing this task |
| Boil an egg | 81% |
| Change a light bulb | 79% |
| Cook a complete meal without using a recipe | 69% |
| Read a map | 66% |
| Sew on a button | 65% |
| Unblock a sink | 62% |
| Remove a stain from a carpet or clothing | 59% |
| Change a baby’s nappy | 57% |
| Wire a plug | 57% |
| ‘Bleed’ a radiator | 53% |
| Check oil levels in a car | 53% |
| Put up a shelf | 47% |
| Put up wallpaper | 39% |
| Change a flat tire | 37% |
| Change a washer on a tap | 30% |
| Fit tiles | 22% |
Click here to read the entire report, which broke down the findings by age groups and revealed many other interesting results.
It’s not just the UK. What’s more, if the net worth of those polled were revealed they’d be in the upper percentile of people on the planet. While the people able to do those simple chores or build their homes, build their cars, harvest the kale they claim to eat, raise the beef they actually eat, cure the pot they smoke, cut the coke they snort, etc… are considered to be the dregs of society.
If one knocked on my door he’d given a fish hook and a spool of line. And not from the generosity of showing him how to care for himself either. Just for the sheer joy of watching the sob starve himself to death!
Snowflakes mostly.
Liberals. Helpless fools destine to starve. I could weld at 7. Drove a dozer at 5. Been a engineer for 32 years.
People today are helpless children. The product of socialism because knowledge is power and socialist hate anyone who doesn’t need their sorry, pathetically parasite arse…
Look at the numbers: 83% is the highest percentage on ANYTHING, and it’s one of the activities that makes the headline for being a disappointing percentage? Yes. The real news is that on ANY household activity, 20% of people, or drastically more, don’t feel comfortable with their ability level. News? Nope. It’s just a survey, folks. Surveys have next to zero relationship to reality.
Maybe they should be calling this the “Incompetent Generation”. Also shows the total inadequacy of the educational system and parenting too.
how many Englishman does it take to change a lightbulb?
After an hour, it seems nobody knows. Is that because it’s never happened?
In other words 1 in 5 people shouldn’t be able to reproduce!
Fill a pot with cold water to just above the level of the eggs.
Put element on high, put pot on element.
Turn off element when pot has boiled. Remove pot from element.
Leave eggs in water for 10 minutes (for hard boiled, for soft boiled around 7-8).
How is that hard? How do these people now know how to do this?
I put a dozen cold eggs into a covered steamer insert over medium-low boiling water for 35-40 minutes (too high a boil tends to crack them).
Then turn off the heat, leave covered until cooled to room temp, put into refrigerator.
Perfect every time and I believe easier to peel than the immersed method above (using eggs at least two weeks old helps with peeling as well).
Don’t tell the leftists who can’t do this; let ’em starve out of ignorance to improve the world a bit.
We use a 1930’s Sunbeam egg cooker. Still works like a charm.
The study was flawed. One doesn’t actually ‘change’ a light bulb when it burns out. One simply ‘replaces’ the burned out bulb with a new working bulb.
“The findings were even surprising to the folks behind the study.” This is only because those conducting the study apparently don’t often interact with other people.
Hard to take someone who is too lazy to use upper case for the first letter in their name seriously..
Just because you can’t spell ‘One’ and ‘Four’ is no reason to denigrate another’s chosen stylization…. sorry that I don’t meet your high standards … wonder why you attribute that to laziness? …. apparently you favor form over substance …. which it turns out – fortunately, is your problem, not mine.
how many psychiatrists does it take to change a lightbulb?
just one, but the lightbulb must really want to change.
Does this answer the question of how do you change a lightbulb? Check with five people?
You’ll get five different answers.
Don’t even ask how many can load a M-16.
Black Guns Matter
..And 100% of the 20% who can’t are all liberals.
Guaranteed.
In my experience, it’s not limited to the list above.
Leftists just can’t seem to do much of anything that’s useful.
Be very careful buying a used car with 53% knowing how to check their oil level.
This explains why leftism still has a hold over a good chunk of the world population. 63% can’t change a tire? Really?
Percentage of people who feel confident using the internet to find true information: 5%.
I wonder if leftists are capable of reading these results?
Experience tells me probably not.
….Because the instructions on how to do it aren’t printed in Spanish, Farsi, or Swahili……
1 In 5 Adults In The UK Can’t Change A Light bulb, Boil An Egg………………………………
lol in the USA we call them LIBERALS…..HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA
Ha ha…who are their parents and grandparents? The blame needs to be pointed at the right person.
More than that think Obama was a great president. Life is largely wasted on the living.
This just might explain the reason: http://www.clueless101.com 🙂
You know that you are just being a hateful, intolerant, bigot for wanting to change the light-bulb, right?
This is what you get from a liberal education.
Of the 1 in 5 people who can’t boil and egg or change a light bulb, 99 out of 100 of them are useful idiot democrats.
How many can felate himselves???
Was the survey specific as to ability? Q: Can you change a lightbulb vs., do you know how to change a lightbulb, vs., have you ever changed a lightbulb?
WHAT DOES SOMEONE IN A WHEELCHAIR DO TO CHANGE A LIGHTBULB IN A FIXTURE THEY CANNOT REACH, WHEN USING A LADDER IS NOT AN OPTION??? Some folks who are quick to condemn, mock, ridicule, and judge, are also short on knowledge, experience, imagination, and empathy.
I love how this is blamed on everything from Obama, to the Govornment, while totally overlooking the FACT, that if anyone WANTED to learn to do these things, it’s a simple Google fix or a YouTube video away. CALM DOWN you easily riled FOOLS.
The plethora of ragheads in Britain doubtless skewed the results.
I have done ALL of those things. Does that make me brilliant? Or just… old?
They are not adults then… just old children.
I see the study broke down the results by age group. Perhaps it might have been interesting to see it broken down by race, country of origin, you know, stuff like that?
Yeah, maybe 1 out of 5 just do it differently where they come from.