Bag forgotten on a train, credit card not found, lost phone… In total, 35 million objects were lost between summer 2020 and summer 2021, according to a study* conducted by the Ipsos institute for the start-up dedicated to lost objects Troov. This mapping shows that 1.2 objects are lost each year on average per household.
We do not know if the French are more airheaded than their European neighbors, but young people lose their objects more than the over 35s. “Young people aged 18 to 24 are generally more dazed than those over 35 since the study reveals that they have lost twice as many objects as their elders over the last twelve months”, notes the start-up in a statement.
We lose our things more in the street, and in the Paris region
Regarding the places where one loses one’s belongings, one finds the street at 49%, then municipal establishments such as schools or swimming pools (33%), shopping centers (27%), public transport (26 %) and places of entertainment and culture (16%).
Some regions also have more stunned people than others: thus the inhabitants of the Paris region and the North lose twice as many objects as the inhabitants of the eastern Paris basin.
What do we lose the most?
According to this study, the 5 most lost objects are identity cards, wallets, keys, smartphones and glasses.
According to SNCF data, moreover, one in three objects found in stations and trains in 2021 was luggage (bag, suitcase, satchel, more than 21,000!), followed in the top 5 by electronic devices (computers, telephones, cameras, etc.) with about 9,980 misplaced objects of this type, wallets or money (7,600), clothes and shoes (6,700 objects) and identity documents or personal papers (3,800).
Unfortunately, most lost items don’t end up in lost and found. Only 2.5% of French people manage to find all their objects thanks to “official services”, points out the study. 21% of them find their belongings by their own means, while nearly 6 out of 10 French people never find them. They are also more likely to see their belongings reappear in the North and the eastern Paris basin than in the West, where only 10% of respondents find their objects thanks to found objects.
Respondents therefore strongly express (7 out of 10) their disappointment with official lost and found services. And 88% want shared tools to simultaneously declare the loss of their object in different places.
*Study conducted on a sample of 1000 people constituting a national sample representative of the French population aged 18 to 64, questioned by internet on the IPSOS interface. Study date: July 16, 2021