Behaviour Study Reveals the Children on Santa's Naughty List

Not going to bed when they’re told, too much screen time, and teasing their siblings are among a few naughty things kids up and down the country have been doing, potentially earning themselves a spot on Santa’s naughty list. 

Interested to find out which region has the naughtiest kids this year, experts at OnBuy.com conducted a behavioral study. 

To carry this out, OnBuy approached 5,556 parents across the UK to monitor their children’s behaviour over the course of three months. 

They were asked to observe their child/children and, if they did one of the following ‘naughty activities’, to record it. * 

Some of the ‘naughty activities’ included ‘not going to bed when told’, ‘too much screen time’, ‘not completing chores’, ‘teasing siblings’ and ‘backchat’.  

1st North West 

2nd Greater London

3rd West Midlands

4th East 

5th South East

6th Northern Ireland 

7th North East 

8th Yorkshire and the Humber 

9th Scotland 

10th East Midlands

11th South West 

12th Wales

The Results

Naughty List 

It seems the region that is at the top of Santa’s naughty list is the North West. The region that has a population of over seven million seems to have had the naughtiest children of 2020. 

87% of parents recorded their child/s not going to bed when they were told to and having too much screen time. 85% reported their child/s to have teased their sibling and 83% reported their kids had not completed their chores when asked. 

Second on the naughty list is the region of Greater London. A whopping 90% of respondents said their child/s did not go to bed when they were told to. 74% reported refusal to brush teeth and 72% reported backchat. 

The third region on Santa’s naughty list is the West Midlands, with 82% of respondents reporting their child/s had an untidy bedroom. 68% of parents reported dodging homework. 

Nice List 

The UK region that reported the least amount of naughty activities is Wales. It seems children from Wales will be going to the top of Santa’s nice list. 

Only 26% of parents reported their children had refused to shower when asked, while 51% noted sweets before dinner. 31% of parents reported backchat, the lowest reported figure for that specific activity. 

Second on the nice list is the South West with 38% of parents reporting back that their child/s disobeyed or broke the rules and 43% reported swearing. 

Third on the nice list is the East Midlands. 38% of respondents reported their child refused to shower when asked and 54% reported bad school grades.