citizens who reported taking a geography course in school rose from 30 to 55 percent. Since the last Geographic-sponsored survey in 1988, said Downs, the percentage of young U.S. The survey results are not all bleak, says Roger Downs, head of the geography department at Pennsylvania State University, in State College, and a National Geographic geographer-in-residence in 1995-1996. In France 24 percent did not know that that their own country was a nuclear nation. In the rest of the countries that number dropped to less than a quarter. Of all the young adults in the survey, only about one-third in Germany, Sweden and Japan, could name four countries that officially acknowledge having nuclear weapons. Only about 20 percent could identify hotspots like Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. On average, fewer than 25 percent of young people worldwide could locate Israel on the map. Young adults worldwide are not markedly more literate about geography than the Americans. On the other hand, Pastor suggests that the results could mean that most young Americans just have no idea of the total world population (about six billion). "It gives the sense that there is this Americentric thing going on-that we are big and powerful and have all these people in our country," said John Fahey, President and CEO of the National Geographic Society. Within the U.S., almost one-third said that population was between one billion and two billion the answer is 289 million. Particularly humiliating was that all countries were better able to identify the U.S. citizens in the study knew that the island featured in last season's TV show "Survivor" is in the South Pacific than could find Israel. Citizens Americentric?ĭespite the threat of war in Iraq and the daily reports of suicide bombers in Israel, less than 15 percent of the young U.S. The Pacific Ocean's location was a mystery to 29 percent Japan, to 58 percent France, to 65 percent and the United Kingdom, to 69 percent. "The results are particularly appalling in light of September 11, which traumatized America and revealed that our destiny is connected to the rest of the world."Ībout 11 percent of young citizens of the U.S. "The survey demonstrates the geographic illiteracy of the United States," said Robert Pastor, professor of International Relations at American University, in Washington, D.C. The National Geographic–Roper 2002 Global Geographic Literacy Survey polled more than 3,000 18- to 24-year-olds in Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Sweden and the United States. But then, as results showed, their counterparts in other countries were hardly star students. citizens received poor marks generally in geography. In a nation called the world's superpower, only 17 percent of young adults in the United States could find Afghanistan on a map, according to a new worldwide survey released today.
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