US poll: 2/3 of Americans surveyed can't find Ukraine on their map

Source: Global Times

The latest survey released by the US morning consulting company on the 9th shows that 2/3 of Americans cannot find Ukraine on the map. Only about 30 percent of respondents were able to correctly indicate ukraine's location on a map. This once again exposes the lack of geographical knowledge of Americans. However, in the above-mentioned survey of Americans, 75% of respondents could correctly find Russia on the map.

Surveys show that people who can find Ukraine on the map and those who can't find it also have different attitudes on the issue of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis. Of those who could find Ukraine, 58 percent supported "the harshest package of sanctions against Russia if It 'invades' Ukraine." Of those who could not find Ukraine, only 41 percent supported sanctions. In addition, half of those who could find Ukraine believed the United States should send troops to Ukraine. Of those who could not find Ukraine, only 37 percent thought the United States should send troops.

In fact, the lack of geographical knowledge of the American people is not a day or two. Many people are also confused about where Iran is. On January 3, 2020, the United States killed Sulaimani, an important Iranian figure in charge of military operations in the Middle East. A subsequent poll by Morning Consulting showed that only 28 percent of respondents were able to point to Iran's location on a map. 8% of respondents confused Iran and Iraq.

Coincidentally, many Americans don't seem to find North Korea either — only 36 percent of Americans can find north Korea on a map. The New York Times said on the 9th that a 2017 survey by morning consulting firms found that educational attainment was the main factor for respondents to find North Korea on the map. North Korea is most easily found by those with a master's degree; followed by the elderly, whose 65-year-olds were able to confirm the location of North Korea, perhaps buried deep in the memories of those whose memories were.

The New York Times reported on the 9th that it is not a new thing that Americans cannot identify countries and regions - 60% of young people cannot find the location of Iraq on the map of the Middle East, about 75% of people cannot recognize Iran or Israel, and even only half of them can recognize New York State. The American geographer Hamm Deblay once said that geography is "an excellent antidote to isolationism and localism" and that "the American public is the most ignorant group on earth on geography." American geographers argue that this spatial ignorance leaves U.S. citizens "without a spatial framework to think more substantively about foreign policy."