Europe mapped by national stereotypes

A series of maps of Europe labelled according to national stereotypes has become an internet sensation with half a billion hits.

Yanko Tsvetkov, a Bulgarian designer and illustrator living in London, has produced seven maps in which countries and regions are labelled according to the stereotypes of their inhabitants held by the people of other nationalities.

In a map titled Europe According to USA, Russia is blocked out in red and labelled "Commies" while France reads "Smelly People" and Germany reads "Dirty Porn". Britain is simply labelled: "Mummy".

In the map of Europe according to Britain, the mainland is labelled "Evil Federated Empire of Europe" while Ireland reads "Rascals" and Turkey is labelled "No Pork Meals Here". Click here to see a bigger version of this map.

Mr Tsvetkov, 33, said he was inspired to create the first map in the series during the gas row between Ukraine and Russia in 2009.

In the first map, titled Where I Live, Russia is labelled "Paranoid Oil Empire", while Ukraine is labelled "Gas Stealers".

The graphic designer said: "I created the first one in 2009 because at that time there was an energy crisis in Europe. I just created it to amuse my friends but when I put it up on my website so many people liked it that I decided to really focus on the project of mapping the stereotypes based on different places in Europe. I was surprised by the reaction because I never really expected it to take off like this."

Mr Tsvetkov's website has been inundated with around half a billion visitors since he published the series, called Mapping Stereotypes.

As well as maps of Europe according to the US and Britain, the continent is shown as seen by France, Germany, Italy and Bulgaria.