Eurobarometer: Cypriots turn to social media for information on disaster risks

Responding to a question on which sources of information they would use to learn about disaster risks, the first pick among Cypriots was social media networks (42%, compared to 29% in the EU), higher than traditional media and significantly higher than local and regional authorities.

Cypriots feel more exposed to wildfires and extreme weather events more generally, according to the recent Eurobarometer opinion survey, which shows respondents in the country to be far more concerned than the EU average about wildfires and mass population displacement.

The Eurobarometer survey was conducted from 7 February to 3 March in the EU through 26,411 one-on-one interviews. In Cyprus, the survey was conducted from 7 February to 26 February through a total of 500 one-on-one interviews.

People in 17 Member States feel most exposed to extreme weather events, such as storms, droughts, and heatwaves. Respondents feel most exposed to wildfires in Portugal and Cyprus, and to floods in Bulgaria.

In Sweden, Denmark, and Czechia where cybersecurity threats topped the list, while the most popular answers were political or geopolitical tensions in Germany, critical infrastructure disruptions in Estonia, and human health emergencies in Finland.

More specifically, when asked which danger they personally felt more exposed to (multiple answers were possible), most responded with wildfires and forest fires (47%, 16% in the EU) and extreme weather events (41%, 38), followed by mass population displacement in emergencies (33%, 17%), cybersecurity threats (25%, 23%), floods (16%, 26%), human health emergencies (15%, 27%), geological disasters (14%, 13%), critican infrastructure disruptions (13%, 21%), and animal or plant disease outbreaks (13%, 10%).

Political and geopolitical tensions were very much lower on the list for Cypriots (12% in Cyprus, 22% in the EU), followed by terrorist attacks (12%, 14%), major accidents (7%, 10%) and nuclear accidents (5%, 6%).

Responding to a question on what sources of information they would use to learn about disaster risks (maximum three answers) , the largest share of respondents in Cyprus chose social media networks (42%) compared to the EU average where this was the third most popular choice with 29%.

The second most popular choice in Cyprus was national media (39% compared with 49% in the EU), family or friends (39% in Cyprus, 31% in the EU), local or national authorities or agencies (30%, 27%), local or regional media (24%, 36%) and emergency management services such as the police, firefighters or civil protection (19%, 33%).

(Source: CNA)