Following my recent discovery of an old poll from 2002 which showed that more than 80% of American 18-24 year olds cant find Iraq on a map, I just found out that another survey was conducted in 2006. This is highly interesting I think. I mentioned the older poll in this thread:
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=53395.0The results:
Executive Summary
Highlights
Americans are far from alone in the world, but from the perspective of many young Americans, we might as well be. On this survey, most young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 demonstrate a limited understanding of the world beyond their country’s borders, and they place insufficient importance on the basic geographic skills that might enhance their knowledge.
In this survey, young Americans answer about half (54%) of all the questions correctly. But by and large, majorities of young adults fail at a range of questions testing their basic geographic literacy. There is some good news. For instance, respondents have a fairly good understanding of how to use a map for simple navigation tasks, and many can say on which continents different countries and significant natural landmarks are found. They accurately recall a number of timely facts, such as the Asian origins of the current strain of avian influenza.
However, survey results show cause for concern. Six in ten (63%) cannot find Iraq on a map of the Middle East, despite near-constant news coverage since the U.S. invasion of March 2003. Three-quarters cannot find Indonesia on a map – even after images of the tsunami and the damage it caused to this region of the world played prominently across televisions screens and in the pages of print media over many months in 2005.
Three-quarters (75%) of young men and women do not know that a majority of Indonesia’s population is Muslim (making it the largest Muslim country in the world), despite the prominence of this religion in global news today. Neither wars nor natural disasters appear to have compelled majorities of young adults to absorb knowledge about international places in the news. Also striking is young Americans’ ignorance of how the United States fits into the wider world.
Majorities overestimate the total size of the U.S. population and fail to understand how much larger the population of China is. Three-quarters (74%) believe English is the most commonly spoken native language in the world, rather than Mandarin Chinese.
Although 73% know the U.S. is the world’s largest consumer of oil, nearly as many (71%) do not know the U.S. is the world’s largest exporter of goods and services – half think it’s China. Such lack of geographic literacy shows up closer to home, as well. Half or fewer of young men and women 18-24 can identify the states of New York or Ohio on a map (50% and 43%, respectively).
Moreover, their lack of knowledge does not seem particularly alarming to many young Americans. Half think it is “important but not absolutely necessary” either to know where countries in the news are located (50%) or to be able to speak a foreign language (47%) – and six in ten (62%)young Americans cannot speak a second language fluently (38% report being able to speak one or more non-native languages “fluently”
Indeed, young adults are far more likely to say speaking a foreign language is “not too important” (38%) than to say it is “absolutely necessary” (14%). On a positive note, however, young Americans have access to a potentially important tool for improving geographic knowledge and understanding: the Internet. Eight in ten (80%) young adults have been on the Internet within the past month, and majorities say computer and Internet skills are “absolutely necessary” in today’s world (60% and 56%, respectively).
This is significant because use of the Internet to follow news about current events worldwide is positively associated with young Americans’ performance on the quiz. While still small (27%),
the percentage of young adults who turn to the Web for world news has more than doubled in just the last four years (11% in 2002).
Taken together, these results suggest that young people in the United States – the most recent graduates of our educational system – are unprepared for an increasingly global future.
Far too many lack even the most basic skills for navigating the international economy or understanding the relationships among people and places that provide critical context for world events.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/roper2006/findings.html
