A recent survey from Morning Consult and Politico found that only 28% of Americans surveyed could accurately find Iran on an unlabeled map of the Middle east.
Only 23% could find it on an unlabeled world map.
Among those who were unable to correctly locate Iran, 8% incorrectly placed it in nearby Iraq—another country we have been in conflict with for decades.
The survey highlighted American voters' lack of familiarity with world geography even as it related to countries that the US has been in long-term conflict with. Respondents' political affiliations and age were not strong factors in whether they could find Iran on the map.
Respondents' level of education and wealth were, however—more educated and wealthier voters were significantly more likely to be able to place Iran on the map.
Joanna Piacenza, from Morning Consult, tweeted the results of the survey.
This isn't the first test of our geographic knowledge that we've failed completely.
Morning Consult's survey is based on another from 2017 asking Americans to locate North Korea.
When the results of the Iran survey were shared on Twitter users were a bit confused by some of the answers.
Some people argued that the results actually weren't too bad, all things considered.
Many people weren't so much surprised by the survey results, just disappointed.
While the 1,995 people surveyed don't necessarily represent all Americans, it is troubling that only 28% of those polled could correctly locate Iran while a much higher percentage have vocal opinions on the country.
American citizens not being able to locate a country that we have been in conflict with for decades demonstrated an alarming trend, especially given recent calls to escalate hostilities and a possible war.
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