I assume pretty much any non-American can name a bunch of cities in the United States. And I assume most non-Americans can name most of our states. But is the knowledge of which cities are in which states common in other countries? Would the average person in Europe or Australia or Asia or South America know that Philadelphia is in Pennsylvania, that Seattle is in Washington, and that Atlanta is in Georgia?
I would guess many are familiar with the major cities of California and Florida, as they are major tourist destinations.
I expect it would depend on the city. For major ones, I’d say yes. We learnt about the William Penn/Quaker/Philadelphia stuff in history at school. Atlanta, Georgia is well known from the Olympics, and Gone with the Wind. And many other city/state pairs are ingrained because of American television reporters’ habit of ending their reports with “Nashville, Tennessee” etc.
For smaller cities, less so.
If I can tack on a question here, how well-known is Chicago among non-American Dopers?
The city/states I know are the ones that get said together on TV a lot.
New York, New York
Boston, Massachusetts (I had to google the spelling)
Atlanta, Georgia
Los Angeles, California
San Francisco, California
Waco, Texas
etc
I know Chicago (Illinois!) because of Barack Obama. I could tell you some of the major sports teams, but not much about the city itself.
I’d say Canadians do, but then, we’re right next door and we also have a jurisdiction akin to a state: our provinces. Thinking of “Philadelphia, Pennsylvania” or “Denver, Colorado” is as natural as thinking of “Montreal, Quebec” or “Calgary, Alberta.” Plus, the amount of American TV we get helps: news reports come in from all places in the US, and except for the most important and/or biggest cities (for example, New York City or Washington DC), we often hear something like “From Somecity, Anystate, this is Joe Blow reporting.”
The Windy City? The toddlin’ town? Home of State Street (that great street)? I’d say it’s pretty well known–I’ve even been there–but I can’t speak for all non-American Dopers.
I was living in Britain in the 1980s and I can assure you that most Britons knew:
Miami, FL (Miami Vice)
Dallas, TX (Dallas)
The Spanish-named cities in California (Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Francisco)
New York (obviously)
Today with globalization and the Internet it’s probably quite widespread, I’d imagine.
As to the examples in the OP I’d say yes, yes and yes.
It’s the US state capital cities that I find tricky, because the capital city is not necessarily the commercial center for the state.
Didn’t they play If You Leave Me Now?
Yeah, but it’s not just TV reporters – I feel like every US city I’ve ever heard of has come coupled with it’s state, no matter what the source. I seem to have absorbed a lot of this information just by some sort of osmosis. How else do I know about Akron, Ohio; Butte, Montana or Joliet, Illinois (OK, that’s probably the Blues Brothers).
Possibly the only cities where the state isn’t always mentioned are the really famous ones like Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Boston, New York and (yes) Chicago.
Some of them roll off the tongue together, “Portland, Oregon”, “Seattle, Washington”, or “Atlanta, Georgia” but there is a huge amount of ignorance of American geography here. I’m fairly well versed on Chi-town having spent a while there before and O’Hare being the main hub I use for travel within the US.
Yes. Also Chicago, Illinois and Boston, Massachusetts.
As for Chicago, around here (Sweden) everyone’s heard of it, but it’s mainly known for Al Capone, Tommy guns, gangsters in hats.
As An Gadaí said, some roll well together. Nashville, TN and Denver, CO come to mind. Some others, less so: I don’t know in which states Detroit or Minneapolis are situated. Or Chicago, for that matter, is it Illinois or Michigan? It’s on Lake Michigan, right? People have heard of Chicago and know roughly where it is, but not which state. And if they, like me, played Midtown Madness, they might know their way around, too. 
ETA: D’oh. So it’s Illinois. Well, ignorance fought. One other US city that everyone here knows but no one knows the state it’s in is Springfield.
When I hear “Chicago”, one of the first things I think of is the Roaring 20’s (The Thompson M1928A1 SMG was nicknamed the “Chicago Typewriter” for its prevalent and frequent use by both sides of the law during Prohibition).
I couldn’t tell you anything else about the city (besides the fact the SDMB is based there) off the top of my head, other than that it’s on the shore of Lake Michigan, in the state of Illinois, and is sometimes known as “The Windy City”. And something about a massive fire back in the 1870s, IIRC.
Not really; of course people who have an interest in geography will be more likely to track it, but there’s no instantaneous trigger of “Seattle” -> “Washington.” Many people are befuddled by “Washington DC” not being in or near “Washington State”, but then, most of those people are also surprised by the handful of Spanish provinces which don’t have the same name as their capitals.
People will be able to tell you that NYC is in NY, LA in California… but probably not much more.
I think I can match up quite a few US cities with their states. If not states then at least the general region of the country. Capitals might be a bit harder because you seem to have a nasty habit of picking hick towns for capitals.
New York, New York’s a gimme.
LA and San Fran in California (capital’s Sacramento though, innit?)
Reno and Vegas in Nevada.
Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth in Texas.
New Orleans, Louisiana (thanks James Lee Bourke).
Miami Florida
Chicago Illinois (thanks to the Blues Brothers).
Atlanta Georgia
Washington in it’s own little district of Columbia, Like our Canberra has it’s own little capital territory.
Louisville Kentucky
Wichita Kansas
Great Falls Montana
Seattle Washington
Anchorage Alaska
Spingfield… everywhere! (& Ogdenville & North Heverbrook!)
Hmmm, maybe I’m a bit better with the west and south than the midwest and east coast. Who in the hell decided you needed so many states anyway?
Edit punkchewashon.
Um… which Springfield? The one I’m most familiar with is in MA – but that’s because I was born in its suburbs… I know there are many more in other states, including the state capital of Illinois, but also in Ohio, Missouri, etc…
To the OP – I think possibly the only major US cities I habitually get wrong are in the W. Texas / N. Mex. / Arizona area – and I get those right most of the time if I think about them, too.
Of course I’m not sure I qualify as “foreign” – I’ve pretty much lived all my life abroad, but I am an American citizen, and do have a fairly good grasp of American geography, history and culture, so I may not be the ideal data-point for this kind of survey. I suspect most Israelis would only be able to place the “biggies” – NYC, LA, maybe a few more (not at all sure about most people here placing Boston and Chicago, for example.)
I think that was a little whoosh, alluding to the fact that the Simpsons Springfield is famously and deliberately never located.
I think most US cities are very closely associated with their states in the public consciousness. I reckon if a Brit has heard of a US city at all, chances are they’ll know which state it’s in.
BTW, for me, Chicago means Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. 
D’oh! :smack:
Yes to the large majority but I think you hear a lot of them mentioned in that way Louisville KY, Seattle WA, Houston TX, Boston MA etc.
A few years ago I was reading a list of US cities and towns. I was amazed at how many places I assumed were huge (because I knew of them) that turned out to be quite small. Places like Green Bay, Santa Clara, Flint, Peoria, Waco and French Lick, although GOD was from there.
While I’m not a non-American, I think some people have trouble distinguishing between “New York State” and “New York City”. I live in upstate New York (which is several hundred miles from NYC) and whenever some non-Americans hear that, they ask me how often I go into The City. Some just don’t seem to understand that New York is huge, and most of it is big swathes of nothing.