# National Geographic survey - how do you rate with the rest of the world? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 27, 2004, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914 "2004-11-27T20:42:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/21 "2004-11-27T22:36:49Z")
> [@](#): > > three? Surely the Orthodox at least can’t be lumped in with either Protestants or Catholics? Actually, it would make more sense to lump Catholics and Protestants together. And besides the Eastern Orthodox, there’s also the Oriental Orthodox, who have been distinct from everybody else for over 1500 years, and number several tens of millions. And then there’s the Church of the East… really, lumping these different groups together makes as much sense as lumping together Orthodox Jews and Karaim, or Sunnis and Ahmadiyyas. ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/22 "2004-11-27T23:04:59Z")
I missed three. I assumed the US population is larger than it actually is, I missed the religion one, and I selected one country wrong on the map. for which I blame my poor eyesight. I freely confess that geography isn’t my strong suit though, and I tend to know the general areas where some European countries are rather than specific locales. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/23 "2004-11-27T23:38:59Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > 19/20 > > I missed the religion question. I didn’t think Christianity had the most followers. Me, too. I’m skeptical of the answer, as well. ---
**Author:** ![Shrinking\_Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/24 "2004-11-28T00:33:51Z")
> [@Noone Special](#): > > one of the questions was “Locate Israel”, which doesn’t really count for me Unfortunately it counted for me - it’s the only one I got wrong. :smack: Though I did choose the one next door … ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/25 "2004-11-28T00:48:29Z")
> [@An Arky](#): > > Me, too. I’m skeptical of the answer, as well. Why? And I’d find it embarrassing to not know the population of my own country. It’s not surprising that people know more about countries which are neighbours, I mean, more Americans could find Mexico than Japan, but … only 25% of Americans knew the answer to the population of the US, which is the lowest score. Mexicans were better at knowing the US population. And that’s embarrasing. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/26 "2004-11-28T00:58:51Z")
I missed a few, because I am woefully ignorant of geography. However, I did not miss that many (especially considering how ignorant I am), and felt like most of the questions were very simple. It shocked me that so many people didn’t know the answers. I mean, _ **I** _ am woefully ignorant, but it looks like I know more, on average, than many of my fellow Americans. That scares me. ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/27 "2004-11-28T01:19:04Z")
19 out of 20. Missed the religion question. I think I mistook hearing that Islam is the fastest growing and made it the largest. Oh well, least I’m not alone. What caught me on the geography questions were the numbers. For the most part the numbers weren’t even in the same continent. If you took a second to look, the answers were pretty obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/28 "2004-11-28T01:25:38Z")
20/20. I hesitated on the El Nino question because I thought that was a name for a one time event not the phenomenon of Gulf Stream warming in itself, kind of like the name of a specific hurricane. N matter, Gulf Stream would have still been wrong so I got it it right. I can see why people might miss finding Afghanistan or Sweden or even Japan but for most of the questions there was no excuse for not knowing the answers. The US was embarrasingly low on almost every quesion. We are a nation of dolts. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/29 "2004-11-28T01:35:26Z")
> [@Metacom](#): > > Well, in my entire school career–public Kindergarten through BS, I don’t recall ever taking a geography course, and only take one history class that wasn’t US-centric. I never took a geography course either, but I got 19/20! I am smart, but I also try to keep up with what goes on (and where) out in the big ol’ world. It’s friggin’ embarrassing how many ignorant people live here… ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/30 "2004-11-28T01:42:29Z")
Same [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=279081) from the beginning of October for anyone that’s interested. I scored 20/20 then and would think I’d score the same again if I were to take it once more. Why’s this in the Pit? ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/31 "2004-11-28T03:11:38Z")
I got 19 of 20…I missed Japan of all things and I’ve actually been there. I knew better. Perhaps it was a typo. Yeah, that’s it, a typo. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/32 "2004-11-28T03:26:43Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > I hesitated on that one two, and for some reason when with Christianity. I actually doubt the ability to actually measure how many Buddhists are out there. And Buddhism is not really a “religion” in that one can be a Buddhist and a member of another religion at the same time, if I recall mY Buddhism correctly… You may be underestimating the number of Christians. I know there’s a lot of Buddhists, but Christianity boasts over two billion adherents. I got 20/20. However, I love maps and globes and stuff, it’s kind of a hobby. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/33 "2004-11-28T03:33:53Z")
I failed on the religion one; it´s just not my forte. However, appart from the USA results, I followed the percentages for all questions and I noticed that Great Britain it´s not looking good neither. Not to speak of Mexico which did very, very bad. By the way, that Sweden question was a bit tricky, I know where it is on the map, but I thought it´s number was actually the one for Norway, if Noirway´s would had been on the options I´d have scored 18 instead. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/34 "2004-11-28T03:40:08Z")
It stalled out going from answer 14 to question 15. From what others here have said, I’m sure I would have had 19/20 (I got the religion question wrong). I could have sworn Islam had the most followers worldwide. ---
**Author:** ![LorieSmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a587f6/32.png) [@LorieSmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LorieSmurf)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/35 "2004-11-28T04:11:44Z")
> [@The Gaspode](#): > > Why? > > And I’d find it embarrassing to not know the population of my own country. > > It’s not surprising that people know more about countries which are neighbours, I mean, more Americans could find Mexico than Japan, but … only 25% of Americans knew the answer to the population of the US, which is the lowest score. Mexicans were better at knowing the US population. > > And that’s embarrasing. First of all, the “skeptical” part of his comment had nothing to do with the population question, it had to do with the religion question. Secondly, why did you just insult several people in this thread when no one has insulted anyone else? ---
**Author:** ![IGJoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/igjoe/32/5420_2.png) [@IGJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IGJoe)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/36 "2004-11-28T04:38:13Z")
19/20. I missed the religeon question as well. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/37 "2004-11-28T04:46:51Z")
I’m crap at Geography, I got a bunch of those wrong, and I really don’t care that much. I think there are something like 200 countries in the world, and knowing enough about all of them is, in my experience, unnecessary. Also, I’ve never travelled out of this very localised part of the world. Whenever I have to answer a geography question in _Trivial Pursuit_, I worry, so my results here do not surprise me. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/38 "2004-11-28T05:06:05Z")
20/20 > [@Noone Special](#): > > Another way is “Here are Iran and Pakistan along the shore - and there’s Afghanistan, landlocked above them”. That’s how I went about it. But I have some confessions to make: I can locate Sweden on a map with my eyes closed (hubby is a Dane) but if the choices had included the number corresponding to Norway I was just going to play “eenie meeny minie mo”. The numbers were too close and placed weirdly. I almost chose Budhism on the religion question. But that would have just been a bad case of wishful thinking on my part. If they had asked questions about finding African countries in the map I would have probably gotten some wrong. Some (like Egypt, duh!) are easy to find, some are so not easy to find. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/39 "2004-11-28T05:29:18Z")
18/20. I blew Sweden and El Nino. Grrr… ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/40 "2004-11-28T05:40:09Z")
> [@Noone Special](#): > > True, _if_ you lump **all** Christians (and all Muslims) together. > > A case can be made, however, for the various major chrisitian divisions to be counted as separate religions (they didn’t call it a _schism_ for nothing, you know). In that case, Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims should probably be counted separately as well, though - and in that case I’m not sure what the largest group comes out to be. Christianity is not as fractured as much as you may think. The largest Christian denomination is Catholicism, which is half of all Christians, about 1 million of them. (This beats out all Hindus.) ## What’s the largest Islamic ‘denomination’? Why are people surprised that Christianity is so large? Most of four continents (NA, SA, EU, AU) and half of one continent (AF) are Christian. (To be pedantic, I’m guessing that most of the explorers to the Antarctic are Christian, too… so chalk up one more continent for Christians!) Peace. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914.md?page=3)