Of all the data maps I've ever seen, this is the one I don't believe in the most. US Americans are so embarrassingly shit at geography. There is no way on god's green earth Americans are familiar with this many countries. I bet most Americans couldn't name more than like 30 US states. Do you really think 80-90% of Americans have heard of Zambia? Or Papua New Guinea?! No way, I don't buy this for a second. Gotta be some really low quality underlying data. Americans are liars.
theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/18/republican-voters-bomb-agrabah-disney-aladdin-donald-trump
Yeah, just as many Americans have heard of Brunei as Vietnam?
How did I miss it? When did we go to war with Brunei? It's how Americans learn geography.
Prankster pollster sneaks in some maps for a bonus round.
The pollster shows Yugoslavia and asks "Is this Belgravia?"
American: "Yeah. I think so. Belgravia? Yeah."
Italy's boot appears. "Is this Greece?"
American: "Yeah."
Pollster: "Let's go to the Middle East. He shows Egypt. "Is this Libya?"
American: "Yeah. I'm better at this than I thought!"
Pollster: "You're doin' awesome. Next up is..."
Yeah there are a lot of countries in Europe around 10M people that I've had Americans tell me they'd never heard about.
I think it's a sampling bias, of people who respond to YouGov polls. Maybe some lying on the responses too.
To be fair, I don't recognize the United States either
One percent of Americans haven't heard of 90% of the countries :bern-disgust:
Disputed Zone? Burkina Faso? Who called all these weird places?
Which disputed zone? Western Sahara is 'no data'.
Or am I missing the joke?
True, it's just Norway with less mountains and even more trees.
alright so note to self if i'm hiding from Americans go to Mauritania
It's all the former SSRs except Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Georgia. Not sure why Lithuania is better known than the others.
How are more Americans aware of Thailand than Vietnam? You'd think people would be aware of the war.
That was a long time ago, Grandpa.
Thailand is a happy and fun vacation destination for people who don't mind 12 hour flights. Vietnam? Not so much.
The funniest ones must be never having heard of China or Russia, right?
I am embarrassingly shit at geography and probably one of those Americans people from other countries mock, tbh
I wish I could make fun of my fellow Americans for being dumb, but I'd never even heard of Suriname before right now
So coming in at more than half of Americans haven't even heard of it: Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Burundi, and Lesotho. I would honestly expect more countries to be on this list, but if it was "could point to on a map" rather than "have heard of" the entire world would be dark purple.
