A recent study undertaken by a peer-to-peer boat rental and yacht charter company has found the biggest geographical misconceptions held by uk holiday makers including that the Great Wall of China is visible from space (61% incorrectly thought this was the case) and that Greenland is a country (57%).
The team at Samboat.com ran the survey, looking into the most common geographical misconceptions, asking more than 2,300 UK-based respondents, all of whom were 18 and over.
Initially, respondents were asked about their knowledge of Europe’s capital cities; whilst the majority answered correctly for France (94%), Italy (82%) and Portugal (75%), Turkey (9%), Croatia (10%), Finland (14%) and Spain (19%) proved more challenging.
Next, participants were given a list of different geographical claims and were asked if they thought they were based on fact or fiction. The following five are most common misconceptions:
- The Great Wall of China is visible from space– 61% (incorrectly thought this was true)
- Greenland is a country – 57%
- Dubai is a country – 51%
- Sydney is the capital of Australia – 49%
- The Statue of Liberty is located in New York City – 44
What’s more, 26% of respondents did not know that when a British location name ends in ‘-mouth’ it is a point where the river meets the sea.
Furthermore, when posed questions about the world’s biggest monuments; only 34% were able to state that the Trevi Fountain is in Rome. When asked about the Leaning Tower of Pisa, a further one in 17 (6%) admitted to once believing that it was called ‘The Leaning Tower of Pizza’.
Alfredo Bernal, UK Country Manager at samboat commented: “With such a vast world out there to explore, it’s surprising to find that so many individuals are unaware of some key global facts about the world they live in. There is no better time to get out there, explore the world and learn new exciting facts.”
