City News

Forget money, careers and family concerns – image-conscious Brummies are most worried about how to get the perfect body, according to a new survey by Ask.com.
 
The survey revealed that the age-old female cry of ‘How do I lose weight?’ is the most common nagging question on the lips of Birmingham locals, with two fifths (40 per cent) of us saying that we want to slim down. In fact, Brummies are the most likely of all Midlanders to want to diet - weight loss is a bigger concern than reducing household bills (37 per cent) and paying off our debts (28 per cent).

The ten nagging questions that Birmingham most wants to know the answer to:
1.    How can I lose weight? (40 per cent)
2.    How do I reduce the cost of my household bills? (37 per cent)
3.    How can I become a millionaire? (29 per cent)
4.    How can I reduce my debt? (28 per cent)
5.    Should I give up and move to the country? (18 per cent)
6.    Why are we having wet summers? (17 per cent)
7.    Where is the best place to live in the UK? (13 per cent)
8.    How much is my house worth? (13 per cent)
9.    Should I install solar panels? (10 per cent)
10.   How do I write a CV? (11 per cent)

Regional matters are also on our minds - the survey reveals that almost half (42 per cent) of Birmingham locals spend time pondering over local jargon:

The top five regional nagging questions:
1.    Where did the name Birmingham come from? (18 per cent)
2.    Why are people from Birmingham called Brummies? (12 per cent)
3.    Where does the phrase ‘Send someone to Coventry come from?’ (12 per cent)
4.    Where can I get the hottest curry in Birmingham? (5 per cent)
5.    Why did the Specials write Ghost Town about Coventry? (3 per cent)
        
It also seems that Birmingham is a region of worriers with well over half (58 per cent) dwelling on a nagging question at least once a week. And it’s set to get worse, as half of us (50 per cent) worry more today than we did ten years ago.
 
Night time is worry time for Brummies – nine out of ten (87 per cent) have had their sleep destroyed by a concern. And we must all be feeling exhausted as the average time to wake with a question on our mind is 3am.

Behavioral psychologist Martin Goodyear comments; "In today’s complex world, improvements in communication and 24 hour news, mean that we are bombarded with more and more information to keep us awake at night.”

So where are Birmingham residents turning to find the answers to these nagging questions? It seems that 95 per cent of us have now abandoned old fashioned books and encyclopedias and over half of us (56 per cent) are most likely to turn to sophisticated online search engines.

Cesar Mascaraque, European MD of leading search engine Ask.com comments:
"With sites like the new Ask.com using improved technology to deliver the best answers first time, every time, it's no wonder over a quarter (27 per cent) cite the Internet as their most important source for getting answers to their nagging questions.”

If the Internet tops the poll as the best problem solver, then who is the greatest questioner of all time according to Birmingham residents? Almost one six of us (14 per cent) claim that Einstein asked the best questions, closely followed by Aristotle (11 per cent) and modern day question king Jeremy Paxman (nine per cent). And we all know that mums can nag at times so it's not surprising that eight per cent think that their mother deserves the title.