There's obviously no need for durable footwear when your whole country is a boot.

Living in Italy, both Rome and North, the floors are cold in the winter. We wear slippers at home and tell guests to keep their shoes on until spring.

No, in "shoes off" countries it is very normal to wear slippers or other kinds of indoor footwear, so it wouldn't make any sense to count those as "shoes on". I just think the data used for this map was very faulty.

Same for Japan. No chance they're wearing full hiking boots or sneakers inside the house in Japan - the shoe cabinet is built in right next to the front door of houses, tiny apartments, temples, many restaurants, etc. I assume the schools still do too.

Canada is labelled as shoes off but we also have slippers.

Although not sure about Nigeria, are slippers and flip flops like expected to be worn or just available?

For me I have slippers which are worn often but it's not expected that anyone inside wear them. Most people just wear socks if they come to visit. And myself I go barefoot unless my feet get cold then I grab the slippers.

Weird. I also grew up in the UK, and I'm in my 50s now, it's always been shoes off in my and my family's houses. Unless it was a quick visit.
Same goes for my friend's houses.

I've worked in the other people's houses for well over 30 years in different capacities, from 'clean' jobs such as surveying to the more physical jobs of handyman, plastering etc. And a high percentage of the time it was shoes off as well.
Or separate clean shoes for inside.
Basically it's easier to change my shoes than it is to clean a carpet or floor after I have trampled dirt around.

Ok, yeah, you'd get people say "don't bother about your shoes" if I was only doing a survey, but I took them off anyways.
The only time I wouldn't remove my shoes is if the houses were cleaner outside than inside, but that hardly ever happened.

If I had to guess I would say that in all the thousands and thousands of houses I've visited in the UK that 90% were shoes off.

That's interesting, I hqve a different experience - i used to have horrible foot circulation as a kid but i got into the habit of never wearing socks in my house (don't like the texture, enjoy feeling air on feet and them being cooler) and i haven't had the bad foot circulation since then.... as far as i can tell. I have been wearing them for this winter though.

half the year it feels like my feet have been stabbed because they get so cold (slippers are not enough)

Get some down booties. It's like your feet are cocooned in a loving embrace of warmth and comfort.

To me, the big decider is plush carpets. The first level of my house is mostly hardwood and tile. The second floor, and living rooms have plush carpets. So if someone is unloading a car, getting ready to leave, or just general in/out stuff, sure leave the shoes on. Once you’ve decided to stay, get those shoes off and be welcome in the cozy areas of the house.

Which, coincidentally, is also the areas where other warm stuff is.

Yeah as a kiwi this resonates. But it’s weird to see us labelled as a “shoes on” country when even shoes outside are optional lol.

the opposite for me, my floors are dirty, i can handle it