Lifestyle

Quiz: How good are your map reading skills?

The average Brit spends the equivalent of almost two weeks of their life LOST, it has emerged, but how good are your map reading skills?

A new interactive quiz has been launched following new research that shows despite a rise in technology we still typically end up going the wrong way 24 times a year or more than 1,450 times over our lives.

It also emerged almost three quarters of us admit to having little or no sense of direction.

Unperturbed by this, almost one in four said they didn’t like asking for directions. But if it got to the point they had to, women were more likely to admit they needed help from a passer-by than men are.

Commissioned by Ordnance Survey to celebrate National Map Reading Week, which takes place from 16 to 22 October, the research also found 65 per cent of us are not completely confident we can use a map.

Nick Giles, Managing Director of Ordnance Survey Leisure, said: “It’s quite surprising to see we spend so much of our lives lost – whether it be in supermarkets, in airports or when visiting somewhere new.

“Being lost is right up there with the most frustrating things in life, but the results suggest we take a degree of pride in getting to where we want to be – often passing up the chance to ask for help.

“Navigation can be quite a tricky skill, but it’s undoubtedly a useful one to have – sat nav devices and mapping apps are great but being able to read a paper map is a really valuable too.

“We want people to polish up on their map reading skills, for both paper and digital, to avoid getting lost!”

Put your map reading skills to the test below:

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Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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