On a global scale, those questioned proved to be polite in 55 per cent of cases, but in some cities, including Zagreb, this percentage was much higher, said the July issue of the magazine which is published in 21 languages and has 80 million readers.
In Europe, the most polite city was Zuerich, followed by Berlin and then Zagreb. On the world scale, Zuerich ranked second while Zagreb shared the fourth place with Sao Paolo.
The residents of Zagreb are world champions in picking up dropped papers.
Zuerich and Stockholm had the most polite salespeople as they said "thank you" after every purchase.
Moscow and Bucharest ranked among the most impolite cities.
The test was not scientifically based. Reader's Digest journalists evaluated the level of politeness and courteousness in a country's largest city without revealing their identity. They enacted scenarios to see if someone would hold the door for them, say "thank you" after they bought something or help them pick up papers they dropped in a very crowded place.