Poll: What American's (Don't) Know | Newsweek The Smart List

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Roughly half (53 percent) are aware that Judaism is an older religion than both Christianity and Islam (41 percent aren't sure). And a quarter of the population mistakenly identify either Iran (26 percent) or India (24 percent) as the country with the largest Muslim population. Only 23 percent could correctly identify Indonesia. Close to twothirds (61 percent) are aware that the Roman Empire predates the Ottoman, British and American empires.

NEWSWEEK also quizzed respondents on business, technology, science and medicine. About one third (37 percent) have an idea of the current value of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and even fewer (23 percent) could correctly select 2000 as the year that the dot-com bubble burst. The business question most respondents (55 percent) could answer correctly was the approximate price of oil (about $70).

Americans could only answer one of our three science and medicine questions correctly: 54 percent seemed to know that the human brain does not stop producing new neurons until after the age of 65. Only 15 percent, however, are aware that childbirth kills one woman a minute each day around the world. A quarter (28 percent) mistakenly thinks the top killer of women is AIDS and more than half (54 percent) thought it was heart attacks. Furthermore, only a small minority (17 percent) correctly chose "greater output from the sun" from a list of items as the lone factor that does not contribute to global warming (with 65 percent mistakenly believing that rice patties are not a contributing factor).

On the cultural front, even though there have been many popular television shows and movies based on her work, less than half (40 percent) of Americans can identify Jane Austen as the author of "Pride and Prejudice" and "Sense and Sensibility." Women (44 percent) were somewhat more likely than men (36 percent) to answer the question correctly. Still, nearly two thirds (65 percent) of Americans correctly identified soccer as the most popular sport in the world; just 17 percent believe it's America's pastime, baseball.

Geography is not the strongest subject for many Americans either. Less than half of the poll's respondents (45 percent) know that South Korea is closer to Japan than Vietnam, the Philippines and Australia. Close to twothirds (64 percent) do know that the Amazon River is in South America. And despite Iraq's ongoing relevance to current events, just half (50 percent) could select Libya as the only country out of a list of four that doesn't border it.

The NEWSWEEK Poll, conducted June 18-19, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points for questions based on Census Current Population Survey parameters for gender, age, education, race and population density. In conducting the poll, Princeton Survey Research Associates International interviewed 1,001 adults aged 18 and older.

When they, ( the education system), gave in to the politically correct notion that competion was bad, and that everyone was a winner no matter how unqualified they were to advance, we began to see a decline in the quality of the education that childern need to compete in the real world arena. As long as you see yourself as someone who deserves success, then look out world because here comes little Johnny! What they forgot to tell Johnny was, the world does not give a damn about how you feel about yourself. Can you produce? If you can, fine, you have the job. If not, better luck next time. Fantasy never begets reality, and in the real world, if you can't compete and play to win...your toast! The real world ain't OZ, and your not in Kansas anymore Dorthy. Grow up!