# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/61 "2004-11-28T16:25:41Z")
19/20. The religion one. ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/62 "2004-11-28T16:50:31Z")
I got two wrong. I thought Islam was the world’s biggest religion and I thought Turkey was Afghanistan. I know the reason I got the map ones right is that I have a giant map in my room and any time I am reading and a place I don’t know comes up I go look at the map. When I think back to ten years ago when I was in the 18 to 24 bracket, I wouldn’t imagine more than half of my friends knowing these answers and I hung out with the smarter people. It seems like for the last 20 years people have been lamenting the stupidity of today’s youth. I wonder when humanity will accept that it takes time for information to sort itself out in a person’s brain. There is a lot to know about the world. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/63 "2004-11-28T17:33:32Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Nor do any but the most naive (read: ignorant) atheists believe we outnumber Christians, which seems to be your implication. Those who missed the question are definitively ignorant. ---
**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, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/64 "2004-11-28T17:53:27Z")
It’s not _that_ ignorant. It is an oft quoted stat that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world and that stat could create a subconcious perception that its therefore the largest. It is universally known that China is the most populous nation in the world, so it’s not unreasonable to guess Buddhism (I believe that before Communism it _was_ the most popular religion. I can remember some old text books that still used to cite it as such when I was a child). There are reasons to guess Islam or Buddhism which have nothing to do with drawing inferences from the composition of this message board. I would be amazed if it even occurred to a single person to _consider_ the composition of this board. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/65 "2004-11-28T18:02:50Z")
Not all pre-communist Chinese were Buddhists. There’s also quite a bit of animism, Islam, Tin Hau, and quasi-religious instances of Confucianism and Taoism. ---
**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, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/66 "2004-11-28T18:08:16Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Not all pre-communist Chinese were Buddhists. I never said they were. Not all pre-Communist Buddhists were Chinese. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/67 "2004-11-28T18:13:54Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > I never said they were. I never said you said they were. Or did I? This conversation brought to you by The Man Who Didn’t Read Your Post Thoroughly®. Anyway, as I said in another thread about this survey a while back, it’s my contention that all the comments about not doing geography in school are missing the point. I never learned this stuff in geography classes; these questions are basic general knowledge that people should (in my world, anyway) just know. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/68 "2004-11-28T18:26:34Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > 19/20 > > I missed the religion question. I didn’t think Christianity had the most followers. It might not. Questions like this are hard to answer because it’s not clear what they mean. When counting up the worldwide total of followers of a religion, do they mean those who actively participate and regularly attend church, temple, or mosque? Or do they just mean inhabitants of countries with a particular dominant religious tradition? Does the total of Christians in America or Europe include anybody who doesn’t belong to some other faith, even if they don’t actively participate themselves. I assumed this wider definition as the basis for the question so I got it right. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/69 "2004-11-28T18:48:39Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > China is the joker. They don’t seem to be represented in that pie-chart at all. What religion is the majority of those billion+ Chinese classified under? Buddhist or Atheist? That was exactly my point. It seems like China is not represented. I’m too lazy to add all the numbers up, but do you get 6B if you do? ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/70 "2004-11-28T18:57:38Z")
> [@GingerOfTheNorth](#): > > Maybe there are a lotta Led Zeppelin fans taking the survey. There certainly are a lot of them…a phenomenon I can’t begin to understand. ---
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/71 "2004-11-28T19:00:33Z")
20/20, but I’m 32 and follow the news a lot more than I did in the age range it was designed to test. I wouldn’t be suprised if I scored less than 75% if I was 24. ---
**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, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/72 "2004-11-28T19:03:45Z")
WRT China, from the CIA Factbook: > [@](#): > > Daoist (Taoist), Buddhist, Muslim 1%-2%, Christian 3%-4% > note: officially atheist (2002 est.) From [China.org](http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/45466.htm#5) > [@](#): > > Let us look at the facts. Right now, China has over 100 million believers of various kinds of religions. The number of Protestants, now standing at over 10 million, has grown more than a dozen times in the past half century than in all the previous century and half. The number of Catholics has grown to 4 million, up by 1 million from 1949. The population of the 10 ethnic minorities believing in Islam totals 18 million. According to statistics, by 1996, there were 85,000 Buddhist, Taoist, Islamic, Protestant and Catholic religious sites in the country, over 300,000 clergymen, 3,000-plus religious organizations and 74 religious seminaries and schools. Chinese religious circles maintain contacts and exchange programs with religious organizations in over 70 countries and regions across the world. Religious personages participate extensively in China’s political life, and 17,000 of them have served as deputies to the People’s Congresses and members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference at various levels. An excellent read on religion in China [here](http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Reln270/Waldron-revivals.htm). Peace. ---
**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, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/73 "2004-11-28T19:11:59Z")
> [@moriah](#): > > 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’? I’ll answer my own question (finally got around to looking it up). The largest group in Islam are Sunnis (v. Shiites). The highest quoted percentage of Sunnis I could find is 85% of all Muslims. This means that there are 1.1 billion Sunnis v. 1 billion Catholics. Now, can Sunniism be considered a ‘denomination’? There are four schools of Sunnism and even further subgroups based on Sufiism and the degree of fundamentalism and traditionalism. In the end, I think Catholicism wins hand down as the largest single religious denomination. Pax. ---
**Author:** ![Metacom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/74 "2004-11-28T19:33:58Z")
> [@Abbie Carmichael](#): > > So? > > Do people not learn outside of school anymore? > > If the only education I ever got was from whatever I learned physically sitting in school K-12, I’d be a complete dumbass. Well, after finishing with school, the only knowledge I tend to persue is that which interests me. Geography does not interest me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/75 "2004-11-28T19:45:52Z")
> [@Metacom](#): > > Well, after finishing with school, the only knowledge I tend to persue is that which interests me. Geography does not interest me. 🙂 What about current affairs? Surely this subject is of interest? I contend that anything that happens in the world is given perspective by knowing how countries and cultures fit together, and what their societal and cultural mores are. And conversely one will actually have an impoverished view of most geopolitical situations without a vague geographical comprehension. For example, no matter what your opinion on Israel/Palestine is, it’s vital to see Israel’s shape and size, and the size of its neighbours, and the areas described as occupied territories. Or where Iraq is in relation to Saudi Arabia, and how Iran fits in between it and Afghanistan. And what Northern Ireland looks like, and how big it is, and what size its population is, in relation to the UK and the Republic of Ireland. And where Kashmir lies between Pakistan and India. Etc. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/76 "2004-11-28T20:00:41Z")
20/20. I too was pretty shocked at the results for Great Britain. Only 52% can locate the Pacific Ocean?! :o ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/77 "2004-11-28T20:08:03Z")
> [@](#): > > Now, can Sunniism be considered a ‘denomination’? There are four schools of Sunnism and even further subgroups based on Sufiism and the degree of fundamentalism and traditionalism. The four schools of Sunni Islam are not denominations by any stretch of the imagination. Each of them interprets the law in a slightly different way, but all consider each of the others to be just as valid, and just as Muslim. An analogy would be Orthodox Sephardic Jews and Orthodox Ashkenazi Jews - each recognizes the other is also following the Torah, just in a slightly different way. Now, the different subgroups of Shi’a Islam I know much less about, but from what I’ve seen, the differences between them are much more profound than the differences within Sunni Islam. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/78 "2004-11-28T20:11:25Z")
I have to agree with **jjimm**. This test should be easy to everyone. The religious question I’ll let slip as I can see why somebody would logically chose a incorrect answer but the rest you should get right. The answers should come easily when you look at the choices given. OK you may have a problem with separating Sweden from Norway but this test doesn’t ask you that. You just choose the Scandinavian one. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/79 "2004-11-28T20:13:20Z")
19/20, but I outsmarted myself on the religion question. It was early in the quiz, and I said “Hmmm, it’s either Christianity or Islam, Christianity is the obvious answer, and one that plays to the assumptions naturally made by an English speaking audience, so it must be Islam or they wouldn’t consider it worth making a test question out of.” Had it been later in the test, or been presented in a way that let me come back to it, I would have answered the other way after seeing how dead simple the other questions were. “That answer’s too obvious” often works on multiple guess tests that are attempting to surprise you, like trivia quizes. ---
**Author:** ![Sofis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Sofis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofis)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914/80 "2004-11-28T22:50:04Z")
> [@yojimbo](#): > > The answers should come easily when you look at the choices given. OK you may have a problem with separating Sweden from Norway but this test doesn’t ask you that. You just choose the Scandinavian one. You know, I vaguely suspect that the test as originally given was not multiple choice. The test as presented on the website is obviously not identical to the original one, as it has only twenty questions, and the original test had fiftysix, according to the page linked in the OP. I think it was made into multiple choice for the purpose of web presentation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-geographic-survey-how-do-you-rate-with-the-rest-of-the-world/276914.md?page=5)