I rewrote the previous question since it was worded in a confusing way.

what I mean is, do american know the exact position of every american state?

50 comments

  2. Yes, it is something that we learn as young children. You can absolutely find adults who won’t ace a random geography quiz (just like in every country) but overall, yes.

  3. Generally yes. We may get hung up on a certain state, like for me I sometimes forget where the hell Missouri is, but I can fill out an entire blank US map and so can just about everyone else

    Edit: I actually just tried to fill out a blank map, I got every state except Kansas lol

  5. Yes that is learned in elementary school. I’ll admit, I may not get some of the smaller states in the northeast correct since I don’t live nearby.

  6. I think most Americans would know the general location of almost every state maybe switching Montana and Wyoming or something along the way

  7. In school I could get most of them but New England/the Northeast in general always fucked me up.

    Results today would probably be similar.

  9. Most can I think, yeah. Can’t speak for all, but I know I and most people I know could

  10. We learn them in school, so any American in whatever year they learned it probably could do a decent job. Could a random adult do it? I don’t know. I could get most states and have a general idea of where they all are but I couldn’t guarantee I’d go 50 for 50. Which one is New Hampshire and which one is Vermont? Montana or Wyoming? New Mexico or Arizona? Stuff like that, I get them mixed up sometimes.

  11. I can.

    >what I mean is, do american know the exact position of every american state?

    I do. I don’t know about every American.

  12. Yes, it’s typically learned in elementary school. A lot of people might take a minute for certain ones (plains states and New England mostly), but I’d venture a solid majority could do it pretty easily.

  13. I get tripped up by the east coast microstates but can accurately label 45+ every time pretty easily.

  14. Probably not.

    I think most people could tell you approximately where everything is but it’s a lot to keep track of and a lot of the states just aren’t that important. I think anyone saying they could get all 50 states on an unlabeled map on their first try are probably overestimating their abilities.

  15. Not a chance, I’d be surprised if even half could correctly name every state.

  16. Generally speaking, I’d say yes. Obviously, some people suck at this kind of thing, and some people are going to mix a few up here and there by accident, but it is something we learn to do in early grade school (along with learning the capital city of each state usually).

    Remember, our states are the size of countries in most cases, and some of our states probably have a higher GDP than your country does (chances are good of this). So, instead of learning where Luxemburg or Sudan is, or whatever 50 or so countries are closest to wherever *you* live, we learn the 50 states that are on the continent where *we* live (along with other north american geography). The whole “americans suck at geography” is mostly because we aren’t as good at the geography around MyCountry^TM and instead are versed in *our own*.

    Every time someone thinks it’s ridiculous that an american can’t point out Slovenia or some shit on a map, I like to ask them if they can point out Nebraska. I mean, they’ve both got roughly the same population, but Nebraska has over twice the GDP… so which one is actually more important to be able to find?

  17. Maybe. There are more important things to learn than something you can easily google.

  20. I can name and place them all. I had a US map and a globe in my room as a kid. Also had the NatGeo state map puzzle and several board games that featured map of the US. Grew up collecting the state quarter coin series.

    I think the average American probably cannot name and place them all, but could probably 60% of them. .

  21. No.

    You learn it in school, but if you pulled the average adult off the street, odds are low that he’s getting *all* of them right. Getting 95% of them? For sure. But the tiny states in the North East and some of the generic rectangles out west tend to screw people up the most.

  22. There are a few that might trip people up, but I think that most can name all of them on a map.

  23. You’ll find plenty of people that can’t. We learn it in school but many people forget it if it isn’t part of their daily life. People can usually position many states on a map but ones from regions they don’t know they might mix up or forget.

    If any wants to take a crack at it.

    https://www.sporcle.com/games/Matt/find_the_states

  24. Although most people learn it in school, like most things in life, you forget it once you no longer need it. Even though U.S. geography is taught in schools, [nearly 3/4 of eighth graders tested below proficient.](https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/10/16/us-students-are-terrible-at-geography?context=amp)

    I’m well-traveled, middle-class, went to great public schools, and husband and I have 3 degrees (1 Masters) between us from highly ranked universities – if you told us it was life or death to label all 50 states on a blank U.S. map, we’d be dead.

  25. Some of the rectangles out west can throw me off, but yes its common knowledge for the most part.

  27. For the most part. It’s pretty easy to forget 1 or 2 but anyone will recognize every state

  28. Probably not the average American but maybe like a quarter of them could?

  29. Depends on how much they travel. I can, but I’ve been to most states. It’s taught in schools, but not everyone’s going to retain that info.

    The average American is infamously clueless about any geographical feature they don’t frequently interact with. You always hear stories about how a cashier wouldn’t accept a New Mexico drivers license to buy beer because ‘that’s a part a Mexico!’ — Maine is the most often mistaken-for-a-Canadian province equivalent.

  31. Yes, given the shapes of the states I can name all 50 and put them in the correct spot.

    I could not freehand a map of the 50 US states, nor could I name all their capitals (anymore… I forgot the song!). But I could label them all in just a few minutes.

  32. Could every Brazilian name every federative unit? Every Mexican name every state? Of course not.

    Most would get a good chunk of them, but knowing geography to that extent just isn’t very important to daily life. A person in Vermont doesn’t “need” to know precisely where New Mexico is, it’s not an indicator of the quality of our education, it’s an indicator that people don’t necessarily always retain information that’s not relevant to their daily life.

  33. I seriously doubt it, especially when you get up to the northeastern states

  34. Absolutely not lol. I think the average American would do better than the average non-American, but memorizing the states on the map is something you do in primary school and then never again.

  35. It’s certainly taught in school, but some of them are really easy to mix up unless you’ve lived in them or near them.

    Vermont and New Hampshire are two that I think almost anyone might mix up. Similar size, and kind of the same shape, but one is “upside down” compared to the other, geographically. I wouldn’t hold it against anyone who doesn’t live near those states to get them backwards sometimes.

    The “square states” out West can be equally confusing. Not for anyone living near them or in them, but for someone who’s not near those areas? Really easy get at least one of them wrong.

  36. Definitely not. Many Americans learn the names and locations of all states in school, but may forget about them, and especially the locations, as they get older. I consider myself to be pretty good at geography, and can name several of the states on a map, but I still get tripped up by several others.

  37. Average probably not, I can so that’s all that matters to me

  38. No…NO…no.

    People who can will answer “Sure”.

    I’ve seen too many videos of people who can’t tell you what state is Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, North or South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, can’t differentiate between Arizona and New Mexico, and cannot point out Idaho or Iowa on a map.

    These videos display people between 18 and 50.

    So no. An average American cannot tell you the name of the 1st 10 presidents, name more than 5 constitutional rights, or what several states are by a cutout image of a map.

    I feel people are so out of touch by how dumbed down society has become:)

    I gave my 4.0 honor student flack because he had “heard” of the Magna Carta, but couldn’t tell me off hand what it was.

    Ask someone 60+ to name the states by image, name 30+ presidents, what the Magna Carta was and what countries signed it, and you’re going to find the differences between educational emphasis in the 80s back and today.

    THAT SAID….the math these kids do today is fucking insane. Calculus was rough in the 80s, I’ll admit that but this differential equations I had to TRY AND LEARN, to help one of my kids, was madness(Hired a tutor and sat in on the lessons because I felt like “less” for not being able to help). This was all made worse because I BRAGGED about my algebraic skills…and they don’t use FOIL any more…and that’s another story involving another son 🙂

  39. I had a Social Studies/History teacher in 6th grade that could draw the entire map (on a chalk board) with labels.

    That was next level sorcery to 12yo me.

    To answer your question… no.

  42. If we all accept that Delaware isn’t real and Connecticut is just a legal fiction that exists so people have a place for their fake IDs to be from then yes.

  44. I’d say a lot can. I learned it when I was 4 or 5. That’s a bit younger than typical because I had a map as a floor puzzle that I loved (I’ve always been a map nerd). There’s always going to be some people who will get a few of them confused and the occasional person who is just an idiot.

  45. I can – learned it in pre school. Fifty nifty! But it is surprising that there are people who can’t…

  46. The “average” American? Probably not. I can, but that’s just because I like maps. Took me a bit to remember the difference between Missouri and Arkansas but I eventually came up with a mnemonic.

  47. > what I mean is, do american know the exact position of every american state?

    If you mean could I draw the exact precise shape of all fifty states, then no. If you mean could I label a map of all the states correctly, then yes.

  48. I could probably get close, but I’d probably make a mix up a few around the Mississippi River and the rectangle ones near the Rockies

  49. I just tried and got all 50. I use these mnemonics:

    * Vermont is shaped like a V (thanks to another poster here!)
    * Georgia must be east of Alabama because it was a colony
    * Mississippi is on the Mississippi
    * Cincinnati is across the river from Kentucky and Kentucky was at one point part of Virginia
    * Tennessee looks like one of those Old West cartoon signs that point somewhere
    * Kansas and Oklahoma are next to each other because they both get lots of tornados
    * I know St. Louis is relatively close to Chicago so Ar-Kansas must be below it
    * Wyoming and Montana share Yellowstone
    * Tex-Mex means New Mexico is next to it
    * People commute from Connecticut to New York
    * New York NFL teams play in New Jersey
    * Pennsylvania is a fucking huge state to drive through
    * Maryland is leftover Virginia
    * I’ve done the Minnesota-Wisconsin-Illinois-Indiana-Michigan drive so many times I don’t need autopilot cars

  50. We did this in senior year of high school for the last time and I was the only person in a class of ~20 who could.
    I would say no.

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