Despite near-constant news coverage of conflict in the Middle East, 63 percent of young Americans — 18-24 years of age — cannot find Iraq or Saudi Arabia on a map of the Middle East, while 75 percent cannot find Iran or Israel, according to a new National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs 2006 Geographic Literacy Study. In fact, 44 percent cannot find even one of these four countries. Nine in ten cannot find Afghanistan on a map of Asia. Two-thirds do not know that the catastrophic October 2005 earthquake that killed 70,000 people struck in Pakistan. More than four in 10 can’t even place Pakistan in Asia.
Despite the importance of Islam in world events, when respondents were asked which of a list of four countries has a majority of Muslim residents, only one in four young Americans correctly named Indonesia. Nearly twice as many (48 percent) incorrectly said Muslims are in the majority in India. In fact, only 13 percent of the Indian population is Muslim, while 80 percent is Hindu and 7 percent of Sikh, Christian and other faiths. People with some college experience (29 percent correct) fared slightly better on this question than those with just up to a high school education (22 percent correct). International travelers (34 percent correct) and those who said they know “more” than the average about geography (34 percent correct) were also more likely than others to answer correctly.
On a hopeful note, the study shows that the Internet can have a positive impact. Since the previous National Geographic-Roper Geographic Literacy Study in 2002, the percentage of young Americans who use the Internet for news on world current events has more than doubled, now at 27 percent from 11 percent. Eighty percent of young Americans have been online within the past month. Roper analysts found that going online to get world news is positively associated with young Americans’ performance on the quiz.
A coalition of business, nonprofit and education leaders, led by National Geographic, is launching a public engagement campaign, called My Wonderful World, to inspire parents and educators to give their kids the power of global knowledge.
A rich website, mywonderfulworld.org, is at the heart of the campaign and provides resources to help children become smarter about their world, including suggestions for outdoor family activities, links to the best geography games and online adventures for kids and teens, classroom materials for educators and ways for young and old to test their global IQs.
