These statistics are from a recent National Geographic survey. Sad, but true.
Americans are far from alone in the world, but from the perspective of many young Americans, we might as well be. Most young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 demonstrate a limited understanding of the world, and they place insufficient importance on the basic geographic skills that might enhance their knowledge.
Young Americans answer about half (54 percent) of all the survey questions correctly. But by and large, majorities of young adults fail at a range of questions testing their basic geographic literacy.
Only 37% of young Americans can find Iraq on a map—though U.S. troops have been there since 2003.
6 in 10 young Americans don’t speak a foreign language fluently.
20% of young Americans think Sudan is in Asia. (It’s the largest country in Africa.)
48% of young Americans believe the majority population in India is Muslim. (It’s Hindu—by a landslide.)
Half of young Americans can’t find New York on a map.
What do you think of these findings?
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 5:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Canadian HomeSchooler December 4th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Sad but True. Being a Canadian living in the U.S., it is a constant challenge to graciously smile and explain where we are from. Canada, all get it, name a province, forget it!
Hopefully with efforts from Knowledge Quest and HomeSchoolers, others will be encouraged to learn outside the parameters of their own “little world”.