Shock Results Of Geography Poll

[Nostalgia]

So are people actually getting educated these days?

More than three-quarters of British people are unable to name the three countries which make up Great Britain, a national survey has found.


Only 22% could identify England, Scotland and Wales as the three countries which constitute Great Britain.

The United Kingdom is made up of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

A majority of respondents also struggled to correctly pinpoint the world's most common language.

More than half (51%) wrongly believed it to be English, while just over a third (37%) correctly named it as Mandarin Chinese.

The poll, to mark Geography Awareness Week, found map trouble closer to home.

Many of the 2,000 adults quizzed had trouble identifying where cities such as Leeds and Sheffield are in England.

When asked to rank a list of UK cities, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham and Luton, in the order they are located, from north to south, eight in 10 correctly placed Newcastle and Luton (81% and 80% respectively).


Leeds: it's in the North

But only half (53%) correctly identified Leeds as the second most northerly, while a similar proportion (54%) put Sheffield correctly in third place.

Dr Rita Gardner, director of the Royal Geographical Society, said: "The poll raises some questions about how engaged people are with the many geographical issues in the wider world and about geographical factual knowledge."

Angela Baker, community programmes manager for ESRI (UK), the geographic tech company which commissioned the poll, said it was "remarkable that so many people don't know some simple facts like how many countries make up Great Britain".

The quest for more knowledge appears to hold an appeal to some though.

A quarter of people (23%) said they would like to be an explorer.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-...15154756?f=rss

[ZingPao]

So the British are no smarter than the colonials??? I don't know what to say.

[Knight of the Word]

Byeprodukts of a free edukatioanal syctem.

[cbamber85]

Originally Posted by Nostalgia

Only 22% could identify England, Scotland and Wales as the three countries which constitute Great Britain.

To be fair, most people in the UK don't consider our constituent countries as countries, although everybody knows that they now have devolved governments. It's more of a colloquial thing than blind ignorance.

As a northerner I have to hold my hand up and say I have no idea where Luton is, but does it really matter? I know it has an airport...