Brits famously have a penchant for swearing, but compared with the Americans we’re merely beginners. 

A new profanity-littered study reveals that Brits are the second-most prolific swearers in the world, behind only the United States. 

The researchers in Brisbane, Australia, analysed the use of written vulgarities in 20 English-speaking nations. 

Nearly 0.04 per cent of the written word from Americans is a vulgarity, they found – ahead of Britain, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand. 

In Britain, the preferred offensive term appears to be ‘c***’, whereas ‘a*****e’ is especially popular in America, and ‘feck’ enjoys affection in Ireland.

But the dataset includes some even more offensive terms used around the world that cannot be printed. 

‘Cultural differences are reflected in region-specific preferences for vulgarity,’ say the authors, from the University of Queensland. 

Scroll down for the full list!  

Brits may be known for a penchant for swearing, but compared with the Americans we’re only second best (file photo)

The focus of the researchers was to explore the cultural variations in the use of offensive language, which encompasses swear words, slurs, and their numerous variations and misspellings.

The study concentrated solely on the written usage of vulgarities found in blogs, articles, and various web content, excluding the spoken form, which is more challenging to record.

The analysed a database of more than 1.7 billion words of online content across 20 English-speaking countries. 

The 20 countries were Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Britain, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and the US. 

In some of the countries, such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, English is a commonly spoken secondary language.

Overall, they found the 0.036 per cent of the United States written output was made up of vulgar elements – more than any other nation. 

This was followed by 0.025 for Britain, 0.022 per cent for Australia, 0.021 for Singapore and 0.02 per cent for New Zealand. 

Also in the top 10 were Malaysia and Ireland (both at 0.019 per cent), Jamaica and Canada (both 0.017 per cent) and Nigeria (0.016 per cent). 

Out of 20 global countries, Brits are the second-most prolific swearers in the world, behind only the United States but ahead of Australia 

On the other end of the scale, the more mild-spoken nations were Bangladesh (just 0.007 per cent), Ghana and Tanzania (both 0.008 per cent) and Hong Kong (0.009 per cent). 

Overall, vulgarity was more common in blogs compared with general web content – likely because when writing blogs, people are generally less formal and so are inclined swear more. 

Interestingly, Americans tend to use ‘a*****e’, ‘f***’ and ‘damn’ but avoid typically British words such as ‘bloody’, the experts found. 

Brits, meanwhile, particularly like ‘c***’, ‘bloody’ and ‘tw**’ but are less enamoured with the likes of ‘damn’ and ‘a*****e’. 

Overall, across the 20 nations, ‘f***’ is generally a favourite, but there are numerous variations with use both as a verb and a noun (including the classic Irish variation).

Online use of this most-beloved of swear word seems to be associated with creative use of spellings, such as superfluous repetition of certain vowels (for example, ‘f***kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk’). 

And despite being in the bottom half for swearing generally, Pakistan had a surprising fondness for one word in particular – ‘butthole’. 

The new study, published in the journal Lingua, marks the first large-scale analysis of its kind, according to the authors. They describe vulgar language as ‘the natural playground for unleashing linguistic creativity’, while humans are ‘constantly reimagining and adapting the aesthetics of their expressions’.

The new results show that different regions exhibit preferences for specific vulgar terms (file image)

But the team were surprised that Australians swear online less frequently than Americans or the British, despite the especially foul-mouthed reputation of people in their home country. 

‘One possible explanation is that Australians are more conservative when they write online but not so much when they are face-to-face,’ said lead author Dr Martin Schweinberger. 

‘Australians really see vulgarity, swearing and slang as part of our culture – we’re very invested in it.’ 

The study, he added, can help people in new countries anticipate whether or not swearing is an important part of the social fabric. 

‘For language learners and immigrants, knowing how to adjust their language to different social situations is just as important as mastering grammar or vocabulary. 

‘Being able to understand when it’s appropriate to use humor, informal expressions, or even mild vulgarity can make a big difference in feeling included, building relationships, and navigating everyday life in a new culture.

‘It’s not just about speaking correctly – it’s about speaking appropriately.’ 

Future studies could look at swearing habits beyond these 20 countries and in numerous different global languages.