Which world leaders do average Americans know the best (or at all?)

[Blue3]

I'm guessing it's a short list, something like

Vladimir Putin
Angela Merkel
Bashar Al Assad
Bibi Netanyahu
Hamid Karzai
Kim Jong Un

...and that's probably it.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I'm guessing it's a short list, something like

Vladimir Putin
Angela Merkel
Bashar Al Assad
Bibi Netanyahu
Hamid Karzai
Kim Jong Un

...and that's probably it.

I would add Stephen Harper, David Cameron, and Raul Castro to this list.

[Blue3]

I doubt most know Harper or Cameron. Most would have known Blair, even Brown after so long, but Cameron hasn't really stuck out. Neither has Harper, despite being there forever. And I bet most Americans still think Fidel Castro is in charge. Or know Raul simply as "Fidel Castro's brother" instead of his actual name.

[Hatman 🍁]

Rob Ford

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Faure Gnassingbé

[Mr. Morden]

I posed essentially the same question in this thread:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=75078.0

[Donerail]

Pope Francis. Hugo Chavez, probably. You could say Castro if you just limited it to 'Castro' - I doubt most people know it's Raul rather than Fidel. Putin's probably the best-known, given recent events.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Helle Thorning-Schmidt? ("That selfie lady")

[Blue3]

I thought somebody might have made this a while ago!

Pope Francis. Hugo Chavez, probably. You could say Castro if you just limited it to 'Castro' - I doubt most people know it's Raul rather than Fidel. Putin's probably the best-known, given recent events.

Chavez is dead. Pope Francis, I'll give you that, even though he's much more of a religious figure than a government leader.

[⛄]

Pope Francis

[Consciously Unconscious]

Putin, Merkel, Cameron, Pope Francis, Kim Jong Un, and Bashar Al Assad.  That's probably about it. 

[Mr. Morden]

Putin, Merkel, Cameron, Pope Francis, Kim Jong Un, and Bashar Al Assad.  That's probably about it. 

I doubt the average American could tell you that Cameron is the current PM of the UK.  Maybe you offered it as multiple choice, a plurality would get it right, depending on what the other choices are.  But they're not going to recall it from memory.  Heck, as I recall, only about 70% of poll respondents in the US are typically able to tell you the name of the current Vice President of the United States from memory.  They're not going to remember that the current North Korean dictator is named Kim Jong Un.

[Nichlemn]

A quick Google got me this:

2007, but only 36% could name Putin. Some other shocking numbers in there.

More broad ignorance: 14 surprising things Americans don't know:

- 30% of Americans didn't know what year 9/11 was as shortly after as 2006.
- 30% didn't know what the Holocaust was. (Though I'm guessing that many of them knew that "a lot of Jews got killed" but don't recognise the name).

[Mr. Morden]

A quick Google got me this:

2007, but only 36% could name Putin. Some other shocking numbers in there.

Yeah, here's an interesting chart from that release (again, this is from 2007):



Note that it matters how you frame it: "Who is the president of Russia?" might have a different success rate than if you ask "Who is Vladimir Putin?"

I'd imagine that the name recognition on Putin would be higher today though, since he's been around longer, and because he's been in the news so much recently.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

The ones that a majority of Americans could identify:

Barack Obama
Vladimir Putin
Bashar al-Assad
Kim Jong-un
Francis

[Donerail]

Pope Francis. Hugo Chavez, probably. You could say Castro if you just limited it to 'Castro' - I doubt most people know it's Raul rather than Fidel. Putin's probably the best-known, given recent events.

Chavez is dead.

I have little faith that the US electorate will know that. Same thing with the Castros.

[Mr. Morden]

The ones that a majority of Americans could identify:

Kim Jong-un

If the question is phrased as "Who is Kim Jong-un?" then a decent number might get it right.  But if it's "Who is the leader of North Korea?", then I think the number who could recall the name Kim Jong-un will be tiny.

[MaxQue]

The ones that a majority of Americans could identify:

Kim Jong-un

If the question is phrased as "Who is Kim Jong-un?" then a decent number might get it right.  But if it's "Who is the leader of North Korea?", then I think the number who could recall the name Kim Jong-un will be tiny.

I suspect Kim-Jong Il or Kim-Jong Two would be popular as answers, too.

[Tender Branson]

The Pope (maybe without knowing his current name)
Putin
Merkel
Assad
Dalai Lama maybe
"Castro" (any of them)
Netanyahu

I don't think many know Harper, Cameron, Hollande - Berlusconi could still have some name recognition in the US though.

Tony Abbott now maybe because of the Flight coverage.

The new Chinese, Japanese, Iranian, Venezuela leadership is basically unkown to Americans too I guess.

[Tender Branson]

Queen Elizabeth is probably well known too, especially among the olds.

[Cranberry]

Queen Elizabeth is probably well known too, especially among the olds.

Rather just "The Queen". Maybe the olds know their name, but I don't suspect many average young Americans will.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Queen Elizabeth is probably well known too, especially among the olds.

Rather just "The Queen". Maybe the olds know their name, but I don't suspect many average young Americans will.

Actually they likely do.  In many respects the Windsors are also our Royal Family even tho they have no official status as such.

[Boris]

I see these stupid knowledge polls for Americans all the time but what I really want to know is the percentage of Norwegians that can identify their foreign minister. Or what percentage of Canadians can locate Calgary on a map. Or whether Swiss adults can name all the members of their federal council. Do people in Flanders know who Mark Rutte is? Can Australians locate Syria on a map?

[Stranger in a strange land]

I see these stupid knowledge polls for Americans all the time but what I really want to know is the percentage of Norwegians that can identify their foreign minister. Or what percentage of Canadians can locate Calgary on a map. Or whether Swiss adults can name all the members of their federal council. Do people in Flanders know who Mark Rutte is? Can Australians locate Syria on a map?

They would probably do better on all these questions than Americans would on equivalent ones, but I'm guessing the results would still be embarrassingly bad.

[Lief 🗽]

A quick Google got me this:

2007, but only 36% could name Putin. Some other shocking numbers in there.

Yeah, here's an interesting chart from that release (again, this is from 2007):



Note that it matters how you frame it: "Who is the president of Russia?" might have a different success rate than if you ask "Who is Vladimir Putin?"

I'd imagine that the name recognition on Putin would be higher today though, since he's been around longer, and because he's been in the news so much recently.

Only 61% of people know who Barack Obama is???