Americans lost in world of maps

DESPITE the wall-to-wall coverage of the damage from Hurricane Katrina, nearly one-third of young Americans couldn’t locate Louisiana on a map and nearly half were unable to identify Mississippi.

Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 fared even worse with foreign locations: six in 10 couldn’t find Iraq, according to a Roper poll conducted for National Geographic.

“Geographic illiteracy impacts our economic well-being, our relationships with other nations and the environment, and isolates us from the world,” National Geographic president John Fahey said in announcing a programme to help remedy the problem.

It’s hoping to enlist businesses, non-profit groups and educators in a bid to improve geographic literacy.

They will have their task cut out for them, judging by the results of the survey of 510 people interviewed in December and January.

Among the findings:

One-third of respondents couldn’t pinpoint Louisiana and 48% were unable to locate Mississippi.

Fewer than three in 10 think it important to know the locations of countries in the news and just 14% believe speaking another language is a necessary skill.

Two-thirds didn’t know that the earthquake that killed 70,000 in October 2005 occurred in Pakistan.

Six in 10 could not find Iraq on a map.

While the outsourcing of jobs to India has been a major US business story, 47% of those surveyed could not find the Indian subcontinent on a map of Asia.

While Israeli-Palestinian strife has been in the news for the entire lives of the respondents, 75% were unable to locate Israel on a map of the Middle East.

Nearly three-quarters incorrectly named English as the most widely spoken native language.

Six in 10 did not know the border between North and South Korea is the most heavily fortified in the world. Thirty% thought the most heavily fortified border was between the US and Mexico.