Fewer than one in 10 Greeks verified the news and other information they found online in 2025, according to new figures from Eurostat, making Greece the least likely country in the 27-nation bloc to double-check what shows up on a screen.
Just 9.8% of Greek residents between the ages of 16 and 74 said they had tried to confirm whether something they saw on a news website or social media was true in the three months before being surveyed, Eurostat reported this week.
That figure is less than a third of the EU average of 29.2% and far below the rate recorded across the 21 countries that use the euro, which stood at 30.3%.
Neighboring Cyprus fared only slightly better, with 19.1% of Cypriots saying they had checked online content for accuracy, roughly double the Greek rate but still well under the EU average. Both Mediterranean countries ranked among the lowest in Europe for the habit of fact-checking, a gap researchers say points to uneven awareness of misinformation across the continent.
Ireland and the Netherlands top Europe’s online verification rankings
Ireland topped the list, with 63.6% of residents saying they verified what they read online, the highest share in the EU. The Netherlands followed at 53.1%, then Luxembourg at 45.2% and Sweden at 44.6%. Outside the bloc, Norway posted an even higher rate of 45.6%, though it was not counted among EU member states.
In 2025, 29.2% of people in the EU tried to verify the truthfulness of the information or content found on the internet from other sources. 🔎💻
Highest shares in:
🇮🇪Ireland (63.6%)
🇳🇱Netherlands (53.1%)Lowest in:
🇬🇷Greece (9.8%)
🇱🇹Lithuania (14.9%)👉https://t.co/PIT1KRR9F0 pic.twitter.com/bEGHTOfVyA
— EU_Eurostat (@EU_Eurostat) September 8, 2026
At the bottom of the scale, Lithuania recorded 14.9%, only slightly ahead of Romania at 18.2%. Serbia, a non-EU country included in the same Eurostat dataset, scored lower than Greece at 11.1%, while Albania stood at 14.3%.
Why so few Greeks verify news found online
Eurostat’s figures, drawn from its annual survey on digital skills, measured whether individuals said they had tried to confirm the truthfulness of information found on news sites or social media, not whether they succeeded in doing so.
Researchers noted the results show how skeptically people across Europe treat material they encounter online, at a time when concerns about false information keep growing.
Greeks who took part in the survey were among the least likely in Europe to say they had checked news found online against another source, a sign that verifying digital content remains uneven from one country to the next.
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