British adults fail the national geography test

BRITONS may know all about the beaches of St Kitts and the lavish nightlife of Monte Carlo but they have little idea about the geography of their home nation, new national research has shown.

• ONE IN FIVE BRITISH ADULTS DON’T KNOW WHICH COUNTRIES MAKE UP THE UK

• SIX OUT OF 10 NAMED MOUNT EVEREST, BEN NEVIS AND SNOWDON AS ENGLAND’S BIGGEST MOUNTAIN

• A QUARTER OF THE NATION BELIEVES AYERS ROCK IS IN THE UK

BRITONS may know all about the beaches of St Kitts and the lavish nightlife of Monte Carlo but they have little idea about the geography of their home nation, new national research has shown.

 

While their children are busy leafing through revision notes in order to sit their geography GCSE exams this Spring, more than one in five British adults (20.6%) admit they do not know how many countries are actually in the UK.

 

In a year of national pride, which sees London play host to the Olympic Games and the Queen launch nationwide celebrations for her Diamond Jubilee, more than half of British adults (58.6%) confessed they believe Mount Everest, Ben Nevis and Snowdon are actually in England, according to the research* by luxury tour specialists Journeys of Distinction.

 

Staggeringly, more than a third of the nation (33.8%) believes the Home Counties circle Manchester, Birmingham or Glasgow, according to the research.

 

Ten per cent of those polled have no idea that the huge Angel of the North is even in the UK, let alone in the north-east of England.

 

And almost a quarter of Brits think Australia’s iconic Ayers Rock is actually in Britain, while one in 20 confessed they had absolutely no clue that Stonehenge is also based here in Britain.

 

Astonishingly, one in five Brits confessed they don’t know where in the UK Britain’s legendary seaside resort, Blackpool, is located. And the majority (53%) have no clue where Balmoral Castle is based.

 

Almost a third of the nation (32.3%) don’t know that Canterbury, home to the world famous Canterbury Cathedral, is based in the county of Kent.

 

Many experts believe that advances in technology and the easy availability of online search engines which provide instant answers to any question anywhere, any time, means that people now don’t need to store geographical information like they did in the last century.

 

*Research based on a poll of 2,000 British citizens, carried out by OnePoll on behalf of Journeys of Distinction in February 2012.

 

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