Young Bulgarians may be dubbed Europe's bright future, but most of them lack basic knowledge and admit they hate books, according to the shocking findings of a survey.

About one in every three Bulgarians, aged under 19, does not know what it means to square a number, while a whopping 40% say they have never heard of the creator of the theory of evolution Charles Darwin and another 20% have no idea what the mathematical constant "pi" stands for.

History and geography are not among the strengths of Bulgaria's youths, 60% of whom believe that the United States fought against Russia in the Second World War and another 30% can't find the state of Andorra on the map.

In sharp contrast to these huge gaps in school knowledge, almost everyone of the respondents knows well the famed Roma gay and popfolk star Azis and about 40% of them consider reading books to be a meaningless waste of time.

The quality of life of Bulgaria's youth, however, is constantly improving - 85% of them own mobile phones, while 40% have computers at home, the survey says. Access to education, computer literacy, foreign language proficiency and travels abroad is easy and widespread.

In terms of minorities, the Roma are constantly increasing their share of Bulgaria's youth and are expected to account for half of it in just twenty-five years.

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