Are Americans ignorant of geography and the world?

Question

The meme of American ignorance in geography and world affairs seems to be pretty common in my experience. But, how much truth is there in it?

While I'm inclined to believe that the US population is generally less informed than its counterparts of other developed nations (a lot of data does indicate that the US at least lags behind in primary education), I find it hard to believe that Americans could be quite so ignorant as is widely purported.

When looking into the subject, I quickly found on-line sources refuting the well traveled 1 in 5 Americans can't find the US on a map claim. All such sources I've found back this up with a 2006 survey by National Geographic. What caught my eye about this survey was (1) all the other horrific statistics it produced instead and (2) the fact that this survey has been used as the sole supporting citation in many other articles discussing American ignorance of the world. In fact, I came across no article citing any other study, nor could I myself find another study.

I would expect to find more than one paper since 2006 if this were true. The report indicated that two-thirds of those surveyed couldn't identify northwest on a map, that 74% believed English to be the world's most commonly spoken native language, etc. It all just seems too far-fetched and the methodology seems questionable. The report states that "510 interviews were conducted with a representative sample of 18- to 24-year old adults in the continental United States." At first that may sound like a lot, but that would come out to about 10 interviewees per state. How representative of each state could a sample of 10 be? If much more than 10 people were interviewed per state, than which group states did the researchers decide would represent all of the US?

Are there any scientific studies within the last decade that support or refute National Geographic's report and the mass of claims which grew from it? Or, is this a lone study that many others have latched on to?

Insights from fresh eyes would be greatly appreciated. :)

@Mark copied from wrong tab, it's [Are Americans ignorant about the geography of the world?](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/15913/are-americans-ignorant-about-the-geography-of-the-world?rq=1) — ratchet freak, Jan 13 '14 at 11:09
One VERY SMALL sampling effort says they're really not too ignorant: http://xkcd.com/850/ — Ask About Monica, Jan 13 '14 at 17:08
I'd be interested to see comparative studies of people's geography skills in other countries - it might not be that Americans are bad so much as that **most** people are bad at geography that isn't near to where they live. Unlike most Europeans, Americans live in a very large country with only a couple of neighbors. — KChaloux, Jan 13 '14 at 18:48
@KChaloux The 2002 report does that comparison. One example: "*On a world map, young Americans could find an average of about seven countries of 16 on the quiz. By contrast, young Swedes could find nearly 13 of 16, and Germans and Italians averaged 12 each. In fact, whereas only 16% of Americans could find Sweden, 93% of Swedes could find the United States.*" — , Jan 13 '14 at 21:12
@Articuno There might be a slight bias for size and proximity. I expect most Americans could could pick out Russia, China or India on a map, due to their large size (similar to how most people in other countries can pick out America on a map). I expect identifying smaller countries is easier when you're near them - Europeans are going to be more likely to identify European countries correctly because they are nearby. A European is more likely to personally interact with those countries. But I didn't check the report - maybe the countries being identified were in Africa? — KChaloux, Jan 13 '14 at 22:02
@KChaloux The report is [here](http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geosurvey2002/download/RoperSurvey.pdf), but we're straying off-topic. If you want to chat more, I'm often in [chat]. — , Jan 13 '14 at 22:39
@KChaloux, quite. If they had asked the Swedes to place America states, I suspect the results would have been more comparable. — Benjol, Jan 14 '14 at 09:26
I never liked that counter-argument. US states are not equivalent to nations. Yes, many are as large or larger than nations, but so are many Russian republics & oblasts and Chinese provinces & regions. How many Americans or even Europeans could place those? In all cases, they are part of the internal structure of encompassing nations. — CircleSquared, Jan 14 '14 at 10:27
There seems to be an age bias here. The title says, "Are Americans ignorant of geography and the world?" but the surveys seem to emphasis younger Americans, e.g 18-24. Maybe the title should be "Are young Americans ignorant of geography and the world?". I'm 66, and back when I was in school, we actually had a separate course in geography. — tcrosley, Jan 14 '14 at 20:53
A a side note, everyone here seems to ignore that America is a continent, not a country. — istepaniuk, Jan 16 '14 at 07:40
@istepaniuk Not to split hairs, but wrong: _North_ America is a continent, _South_ America is a different continent, "the Americas" collectively refers both to North and South America and to the region of the world west of the Atlantic and east of the Pacific, but there is no continent called "America". The vast majority of the time, "America" refers to the United States of America, which, because that's too long to say, is usually shortened to "America", and whose residents, because there's no good demonym for "resident of the United States of America", are simply called "Americans." — Reinstate Monica -- notmaynard, Mar 24 '14 at 14:45
@iamnotmaynard I am sure you've heard the phrase 'the five continents', there are different conventions, and America is indeed a [continent](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent). This controversy over the usage of the [word](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_%28word%29#Cultural_views) is not new. IMO, in the context of a geography related question, it could be easily avoided as it may lead to confusion. As for the cultural views, imagine how French would feel if Britons called themselves "Europeans". — istepaniuk, Apr 07 '14 at 17:03
@CircleSquared Every nation in Western or Central Europe is smaller than Texas (not to mention Alaska.) While the comparison is not perfect, it's not unreasonable. Your counter-argument doesn't really address KChaloux's point, as Americans and Europeans are not in close proximity to Chinese or Russian regions. It makes sense that European students would be more likely to be able to name European countries, just as U.S. students would be more likely to name U.S. states, and Russian, Chinese, or Indian students would be more likely to name regions in their respective countries due to proximity. — reirab, Sep 08 '14 at 03:02
I did a quiz on the internet about naming countries in Europe, and also one about naming capital cities in Europe. I knew many from watching football (especially the World Cup and European Cup, UEFA Champions League and Europa League). I guess since most Americans seem to only enjoy their national sports (compared to the majority of the rest of the World who enjoy football) and the fact they're not in most of these competitions, they don't pick up on these things. — cantsay, Nov 20 '14 at 07:50
@reirab: It's true that close proximity may well have a strong influence on familiarity with the countries in a region. However, your statement "It makes sense that European students would be more likely to be able to name European countries, just as U.S. students would be more likely to name U.S. states" seems like a misleading comparison: Indeed, it makes sense that European students are more likely to be able to name *states/provinces/départements/... in their respective country*, just as U.S. students are more likely to name U.S. states. States, or equivalent subdivisions, within ... — O. R. Mapper, Mar 30 '16 at 19:55
... one's own country, are typically mentioned in very different contexts than foreign countries, and also more frequently so (and I'm saying that as an inhabitant of a country that is, compared to many U.S. states, rather small as a whole, and that has close relations to its various neighbours). Therefore, "knowing states in one's own country" and "knowing nearby foreign countries" is not necessarily comparable, which is what I think @CircleSquared was aiming at. — O. R. Mapper, Mar 30 '16 at 19:55
@O.R.Mapper Like I said, the comparison isn't perfect. However, as you said, proximity does make a difference and, as far as proximity and size are concerned, U.S. states really are very comparable to European countries. As such, it's not surprising that the average European can label European countries better than the average American. However, I'd be surprised if there's really much difference in labeling countries of similar size and similar stature in world affairs at similar distance to the respondents. Europeans just a live a lot closer to other countries than Americans do. — reirab, Mar 30 '16 at 22:15
@O.R.Mapper Consider that the average American lives hundreds of km from the nearest other country, over 1,000 km from the second-nearest, and over 2,000 km from the third-nearest. — reirab, Mar 30 '16 at 22:34
@reirab: It's true distance may have an effect, although if you consider states equivalent to countries, you should probably also count the Canadian provinces and the Mexican states individually, rather than considering Canada and Mexico as only two countries. — O. R. Mapper, Mar 31 '16 at 20:36
@O.R.Mapper In the case of Canadian provinces, that would actually still hold pretty well. Those things are enormous. B.C. is almost 4x the size of the entire U.K., for example. Mexican states are much smaller, though (the 37th largest U.S. state is larger than the 5th largest Mexican state and the 21st largest U.S. state is larger than the 2nd largest Mexican state, for example.) — reirab, Mar 31 '16 at 21:31
@reirab: Indeed, and the [smallest U.S. state](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_area) covers roughly the same area as the [smallest Mexican state](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mexican_states_by_area). I still suspect people in the U.S. primarily know about U.S. federal states not because those states are comparable in size to their own respective state, but simply because those states are states in their own country. But then, this goes towards a topic for a separate question, but lacking any notably citeable claim either way, I'll leave it at that. — O. R. Mapper, Apr 04 '16 at 17:15

score 23 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 29 '16 at 10:26

The 2006 report you refer to is the last in a series of three. The pattern has been tracked across two decades, with surveys conducted by two separate polling organizations.

1988 - performed by Gallup, sampling 18-24 year olds (New York Times article)
2002 - performed by Roper, sampling 18-24, and 25-35 year olds in the US, and compared against the 1988 results (report)
2006 - performed by Roper, sampling 18-24 year olds in the US (report)

1988 Highlights (from the NYT article)

no more than half those tested could answer correctly when asked to identify the country in which the Sandinistas and the contras are fighting
52 percent were aware that the Soviet Union's war with rebel forces was in Afghanistan
55 percent could identify South Africa as the country where apartheid is official government policy
only 25 percent could name four countries that officially acknowledge having nuclear weapons
more than a third could not pick out the westernmost city on a map

2002 Highlights

just 23% of young adults surveyed could name four countries that officially acknowledge having nuclear weapons
young adults in other countries in the study were better able to locate other European countries than American young adults are to locate U.S. states
close to onethird (30%) said that the U.S. has 1 to 2 billion people, or roughly one-third of the world s population. Only one-fourth of American young adults (25%) correctly identified the U.S. population as falling within the range of 150 to 350 million. Respondents in all other countries were better able to identify the U.S. population than are young Americans.
just 17% could find Afghanistan on a world map.
only 14% of young Americans could locate Israel on a Middle East/Asia map
young Americans did seem more geographically literate on current events that occur near or in the U.S. or that affect U.S. life
When asked to identify the western-most city on a hypothetical map, seven in ten young Americans (70%) answered correctly — up 12 points from 1988.
When asked to identify 12 countries on a map of Europe, the average young American could locate only about 3, compared to their counterparts in the other countries surveyed, who could locate an average of 5.
Just 37% could find England

2006

I'm not going to repeat all of the results, but some highlights are listed here (which you link to in the question).

Sampling strategy

To address your specific doubt about the representativeness of the sample, see p. 46-47 of the 2006 report. The sample was not intended to be representative of any particular state (and some states might have been poorly represented). The sample was intended to be representative of the 18-24 year old population in the continental United States.

A multistage, stratified area probability sample applied down to the Secondary Sampling Unit (SSU) stage (i.e. street/block group or similar classification) was used for this research. For the selection of households, interviewers followed randomly selected, pre-determined interviewing routes with skip intervals. At the household level, quotas for sex and age were applied for respondent selection.

Expectation of more than one paper

You expect more than one paper about American geographic literacy. There are many:

Carano, Kenneth T., and Michael J. Berson. "Breaking stereotypes: Constructing geographic literacy and cultural awareness through technology." The Social Studies 98, no. 2 (2007): 65-69.
Lukinbeal, Chris, and Jim Craine. "Geographic media literacy: an introduction." GeoJournal 74, no. 3 (2009): 175-182.
Gaudelli, William, and Elizabeth Heilman. "Reconceptualizing geography as democratic global citizenship education." The Teachers College Record 111, no. 11 (2009): 2647-2677.
Turner, Sally, and Joseph Leydon. "Improving Geographic Literacy among First-Year Undergraduate Students: Testing the Effectiveness of Online Quizzes." Journal of Geography 111, no. 2 (2012): 54-66.

There are multiple papers on the topic. They take their motivation from this series of three surveys.

A more recent survey

The American Geographic Society's Geographic Knowledge and Values Survey

This was an online survey, with volunteers soliciting responses from US residents. They had 4021 valid responses. This was not a random sample, and is not representative of anything other than the population of people who tend to answer surveys like this. Respondents had a high level of education.

Of the 3,972 respondents who answered regarding the axis on which longitude changes, 56% of the respondents answered incorrectly [...] This result is little better than what might be expected from random guesses.
The majority of the respondents said they did not know if a conformal or Mercator projection was appropriate for comparing the land areas of Russia and Kenya. For those who did choose an answer, 32.3% incorrectly said that a conformal projection was appropriate, while 34.8% correctly said that a Mercator projection would not be appropriate
The majority of respondents, 55.4%, correctly chose a map scale of 1:50,000,000 for a map of the entire earth at page size, compared to 14.7% who chose 1:5,000 and 30% who said they did not know. [...] this result is little better than what might be expected from random guesses
23.3% correctly identified Florida as the flattest state
Most respondents (67.8%) correctly chose Africa South of the Sahara as the poorest world region

In my opinion, this survey does not overturn the results found in 1988, 2002, and 2006. It asked a very limited set of geographic literacy questions, and its sample was not representative of young Americans.

Wouldn't a similar study with non-US participants be required to decide if those numbers represent "ignorant" americans? — npst, Mar 26 '14 at 17:14
Actually the 2002 study above does include other countries: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2496427.stm — drat, Apr 11 '14 at 07:23
Regarding the map scale question in the last survey, how is 55.4% vs. 14.7% "little better than what might be expected from random guesses??" If they had been forced to choose one or the other and still only 55% got it right, then, yeah, that would be little better than random. However, if the 30% that said they didn't know had instead been forced to choose, even if they really had no idea, that would still be 15% more, for a total of 70%. One would hope that educated guesses would have tipped the scales even more in that direction. As it is, of those who answered, nearly 4 to 1 got it right. — reirab, Sep 08 '14 at 02:35
In their partial defense... that Natl Geographic survey is awful. I particularly like how question 2 on that survey is about an American TV show rather than an actual geography question. — jker, May 20 '15 at 09:43
@jkerian: That's a little misleading. HEre's that question: " The most recent installment of the popular television series Survivor was filmed on the island of Nuku Hiva (pronounce: noo-koo-he-vuh), a distant neighbor of Tahiti that is part of the Marquesas (pronounce: mar-kay-suss) Islands. In what body of water are these islands located?" It was multiple choice. — Oddthinking, Mar 29 '16 at 11:37
@Oddthinking: But all the relevant information would be there if you deleted everything up to and including the word "filmed", and I for one would have an increased chance of getting the correct answer, since I know where Tahiti is, but have no idea about the TV show. — jamesqf, Mar 29 '16 at 17:39
@jamesqf if you know where Tahiti is, why does this extra information disturb you? The TV show info is there to gain attention, nothing more. — Chieron, Mar 31 '16 at 15:28
I didn't say disturb, I said distract. As in I might start reading the question, realize that it refers to a TV show which I know nothing about, and skip the rest. — jamesqf, Apr 01 '16 at 21:45
An updated link to the 2006 roper survey result highlights, https://media.nationalgeographic.org/assets/file/Roper-Poll-2006-Highlights.pdf — Microscone, Mar 09 '20 at 14:37