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There may be political arguments about the future of Europe, however another European split is emerging: who owns the best passport photos? A European wide survey by printer manufacturers, Lexmark International, showed that bashful Brits are more embarrassed by their passport photo than nearly every other European nationality.  Only the Italians superseded them. 

17% of Brits admit to hiding their passport from friends and family.  Italians are even worse with more than one in five keeping their passport photo firmly under wraps all year round, only sharing it with the passport official.   However, it is the Norwegians who are topping the photo confidence league - a staggering 98% are happy with how they look in their passport.

Passport Shame vs Drunken Antics
Such is the discomfort with their passports that when questioned in more detail, one in six Brits and Italians stated that showing their passport photo to a colleague would be more embarrassing than falling over in public, spilling food down themselves or discovering that their flies were undone!  

How do I Look?
The French are the vainest nation in Europe, with almost half the population spending nearly an hour to take passport photos before they found the perfect one.  The confident Spanish and Portuguese don't hang around in photo booths - nearly 90% of them accept the first photo taken. 

Dedicated followers of fashion
Thanks to ever changing fashions, passport officials face a barrage of new looks.  The Finns are the worst with 16% of the population changing their hairstyle every year.  That's 10 different images in the average lifetime of a passport.  More than one in 10 Danish men alter their facial hair every couple of months, adding to their dilemmas.  These stats go some way to explain why one in 10 Finnish and Danish nationals have had their passport queried by a passport official.

THE LEXMARK EUROPE PASSPORT PHOTOS LEAGUE
Rank Country  Passport League (based on percentage of pop embarrassed by their passport)
1         Italy                    21%
2         United Kingdom 17%
3         Belgium             12%
4         Portugal             11%
5         Finland               8%
6         Spain                 7%
7         Denmark            6%
8         Netherlands       5%
9         France               4%
9         Sweden             4%
9         Germany            4%
10       Norway              3%

Commenting on the research, Lexmark spokesperson, Paul Kreutzer said, "We've had great fun examining the research, it's amazing how different nationalities view their passports.  Modern day technology allows more people to take and print their passport photo at home and so achieve photos that they actually like."

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