When you put it into perspective: how many Europeans can correctly locate & name countries adjacent to them within their own continent and globally?
Practically all of them. Seriously.
this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2026
49 points (93.0% liked)
Europe
10725 readers
1321 users here now
News and information from Europe 🇪🇺
(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)
Rules (2024-08-30)
- This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
- No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
- Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
- No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism. We follow German law; don't question the statehood of Israel.
- Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
- If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
- Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in other communities.
- Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
- No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
- Always provide context with posts: Don't post uncontextualized images or videos, and don't start discussions without giving some context first.
(This list may get expanded as necessary.)
Posts that link to the following sources will be removed
- on any topic: Al Mayadeen, brusselssignal:eu, citjourno:com, europesays:com, Breitbart, Daily Caller, Fox, GB News, geo-trends:eu, news-pravda:com, OAN, RT, sociable:co, any AI slop sites (when in doubt please look for a credible imprint/about page), change:org (for privacy reasons), archive:is,ph,today (their JS DDoS websites)
- on Middle-East topics: Al Jazeera
- on Hungary: Euronews
Unless they're the only sources, please also avoid The Sun, Daily Mail, any "thinktank" type organization, and non-Lemmy social media (incl. Substack). Don't link to Twitter directly, instead use xcancel.com. For Reddit, use old:reddit:com
(Lists may get expanded as necessary.)
Ban lengths, etc.
We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.
If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 7 or 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.
If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the admin that applied the rule (check modlog first to find who was it.)
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Most Americans always have had a shitty education, but the last few decades it really went down a toilet
Geography isn't the only thing they're bad at, it's just a funny obvious one, especially when they need their point out the country they're invading this time
And yes, pretty much all Europeans can point out heit neighbouring countries, most of them can pretty much point at any county on a map or a globe, because w received an education
how many Europeans can correctly locate & name countries adjacent to them
Nearly all, seriously, because nearly all have been to some school for at least a few years.
I still remember playing a game as a kid where I had to name all countries adjacent to mine (which are like 15 for Germany) and I got them all right.
Edit: ah no it was even more difficult. It was all countries adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea.
@Zwuzelmaus @LtDan The fact that someone even posits this question really points out just how bereft many Americans are of an actual general education.
If you hear, let's say, Somalia, normally people would know it's roughly somewhere east in Africa, Uruguay somewhere in South America etc.
I've traveled a lot and only from Americans I've heard them say about countries they've "never heard of it". When I say I'm in Czechia, they just call it Chechnya, when I say I'm Dutch they love to mix that up with Denmark for some reason, etc.
Their excuse is always the same too: their school sucks. Dude, we didn't learn this stuff in school neither. It's common interest about the world around you, watching the news, etc. Half the countries you "don't know" were bombed by you.
I think what also helps is that we have and value a lot of educational games and tv shows instead of mostly brainrot diversion.
Czechia is not surprising, as in NA it's been generally called the Czech Republic since Czhechoslovakia split.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Yes and no, I guess.
Theres some grade A morons in Europe as well. But I guess on the whole Europeans have better base education compared to the Americans. Doesn't help that Americans keep speaking of "Europe" as a whole, while Europe speaks of multiple different European countries as individuals.
I will say that I know all 50 US states and there's really no reason why I should, as a European.
My partner was telling me the other day about an American guy she saw on TikTok complaining that people from Europe don't know enough about American geography.
I grew up in the UK in the '90s, where almost every cultural touchpoint was from the US. Cartoons, music, movies, it was all American. As a result I almost certainly know more US state capitals than I know European, and can confidently point out the locations of at least half of the US states on a map. Maybe even more.
But, like, why? Why do I need to know that shit? Why should I care?
I don't know the names of any of the counties, or municipalities or whatever it is that subdivides France, and that's the closest non-UK country to where I'm currently sitting. Hell, I don't even know what they call those subdivisions.
So to answer the original question; fuck knows.
France has départements and régions, the first one being the smallest subdivision before cities, villages etc. Examples of regions are Brittany, burgundy, etc. Examples of department are Ile de France (Paris), bouches du Rhône, Corsica.
Manythank.
There's an old series of videos by Rick Mercer of Canada that does some similar cherry-picking of US residents responding to questions. They're all done as a joke (Rick Mercer is a comedian) but they're a surprising amount of accuracy to them. Mercer even interviews some US politicians in it and gets them to say some ridiculous things about Canada that show their lack of knowledge on foreign matters.
The US education is well-documented as an ineffective system but it's not homogeneous across the country so I don't think anyone would be correct to make any broadly-sweeping claims about how knowledgeable US residents are. Just know that some of them aren't very bright and some of them are politicians.
You have to also factor in that culturally, America hates smart people. A politician who is knowledgeable about those things would be less likely to get votes, a lot of them are smart people who play dumb because they know dumb wins votes. A lot of politicians were viewed negatively and their opponents attacked them for being informed and knowledgeable people, and it worked very well. John Kerry is an excellent example of a politician who is incredibly smart and capable, but got politically destroyed for it.
Even Trump is way smarter in person by most accounts. But his public person is dumb as rocks because that's what voters love, because our voters HATE anyone who seems smarter than them.
Personally, I deal with the same thing. Say stupid dumb shit, and people like you. Say something smart and informed, they tend to dislike you. And I have known a lot of smart people who refuse to show their intelligence in most social settings because they know people won't like them if they do.
There are very few environments where being intelligent and informed is generally rewarded. Usually only in the context of school and work, and often in higher-income/education communities, which are far and few.
I think it has to do with the size of the USA. People care and learn about their immediate neighbors. European countries have many neighbors while the USA has two. Moreover, depending where you are in the US, your nearest neighbor might be 1,000 miles away. So as Americans it makes more sense for us to learn about our neighboring states (where we will more likely be traveling).
load more comments
(1 replies)
People who only ever think within their country and, related to that, don't know any geography beyond their borders exist everywhere. Hell, that's the majority of the world. You just don't see their gaps in world knowledge in the English-speaking world, because, well, they don't speak English. And in my opinion, as long as you don't have any responsibility towards the world, it shouldn't be reprehensible to be ignorant towards the world.
However, I can imagine that the average European has a higher minimum knowledge about world geography than the the average American. And I think the biggest reason for that is the worldwide reach of US mainstream media. In European countries you passively get more exposure to the rest of the world - especially US music, movies, etc., but not only that. E.g. football fans will at least hear about countries and cities all around the world. The US media on the other hand, although it is definitely widening, is still much more egocentric, again, especially because they are the mainstream.
Well, I can point out all the continents and most countries on a map (approximately), even subdivisions (states etc.) in many western countries. But anecdotal evidence doesn't really help that much for this question, IMO. Just go look up some statistics.
view more: next ›