• Research by Savoo explores Google search data to find the most searched for hobbies across Europe to see how people around the world like to spend their free time. 

With normality still a long way off and the world set to face social restrictions for some time, we’ve had a lot more spare time on our hands than usual allowing us to focus on a new hobby or actually spend the time on our existing ones.

For some, being at home all hours of the day has given us the perfect excuse to binge-watch TV, whilst for others it’s meant picking up a new culinary hobby like baking banana bread.

No matter what it is, the benefits of starting a new hobby, or just continuing with one are endless. According to PhDr. Ivana Poku: “Hobbies have a positive impact on your mental and physical health, they give your breaks a purpose, relieve stress, and give you a sense of happiness regardless of your age.

“Thanks to hobbies you can explore yourself and discover hidden skills that go hand in hand with increased confidence and energy levels. Exploring new skills is beneficial, especially in isolation, when we feel stuck and cannot do some of the things we used to do.”

When combining search data from across Europe, the most popular hobbies that people are Googling are:

1. Yoga (773,870 Google searches a month)
2. Cooking (630,440)
3. Exercise (621,870)
4. Painting (621,620)
5. Puzzles (550,230)

Britain picks up the paintbrush 

The data reveals that when it’s time to clock off and put the laptop away, the UK likes to pick up the paintbrush and start putting brush to paper. With 165,000 monthly Google searches, painting has been revealed as the UK’s favourite hobby.

PhDr. Ivana Poku comments: “There are many reasons why painting has come up on top as the UK’s favourite hobby. Painting has many benefits to our wellbeing such as boosting creativity, providing stress relief, increasing concentration, and strengthening our memory.”

The research also explores the hobbies that have seen the biggest increase in searches during lockdown. It found that the UK has grown an interest in completing puzzles with a 307% increase in people looking online for puzzles in April 2020 compared to May 2019.

PhDr. Ivana Poku states “Puzzling keeps you mentally active, which can delay Dementia and Alzheimer’s and in small children, it is great for developing physical skill.”

The table below gives a breakdown of hobbies that have gained the most interest during lockdown in each UK city: