One quarter of Europeans know about 300th anniversary of Saint Petersburg

About 26% of Europeans have heard about the 300th anniversary of Saint Petersburg, according to a survey carried out by the Agency for Social Information. 74% were not aware of the city's tricentenary.

Of those who know about the anniversary only 57% consider it to be an event of European proportions. 22% said it was an event of European proportions while 13% said it was only an event for local people to celebrate.

The people who know most about the city's anniversary are the residents of the nearest European capital, Helsinki, where 74% know about the city's anniversary. 58% of the residents of Stockholm also know about it. In other European cities less than half of the respondents had heard about the tricentenary of Saint Petersburg. In Paris, for example, 42% know about it, in Rome 29%, in Oslo 23%, in Copenhagen 18% and in Madrid only 6%.

1500 people from 12 Western European cities took part in the survey, including Amsterdam, Brussels, Vienna, Hamburg, Copenhagen, London, Madrid, Oslo, Paris, Rome, Stockholm and Helsinki. The survey was carried out in the native languages of participating countries between April 20 and May 5, 2003.