People living in rural areas find it easier to speak to others about ‘inappropriate behaviour’ than those living in towns and cities, national statistics office CBS said on Monday.

Some 53% of countryside dwellers say they would dare to talk to others about their actions, compared with just 40% of city dwellers, the CBS said. The agency did not give any examples of the sort of issues neighbours might be likely to raise.

‘The stronger the social cohesion in a neighbourhood, the easier people find it to point things out to each other,’ CBS spokesman Dick ter Steege said. ‘In a village, people often think they know everyone, even if it is only through others. And then they are more likely to dare to tell each other off.’

The CBS research shows that the more built-up an area is, the less likely people are to say people in their neighbourhood get on well. While 70% of country dwellers say they feel at home with their neighbours, only 53% of city dwellers feel the same.

Some four in 10 people who live in the countryside say they have a lot of contact with their neighbours, compared with 29% of city residents.

The figures come from the agency’s latest Public Safety Monitor and refer to research from 2019, before coronavirus hit.

According to DutchNews.nl own research into the impact of coroanvirus on the international community, over three in 10 expats have checked up on a neighbour and one in five have started talking to neighbours they never talked to before.