Can you place every US state on a map?

25 comments

1. Yes. I would not struggle.

2. Easily.

   I can also put a dot near where most state capitals and major cities are.

3. Yes. I have 2 degrees in Geography.

4. Yes, without much difficulty.

5. Yes. I have a puzzle where you piece the states together, and I did that when I was 5 years old.

6. Yes. I should also be able to write the name of the capital in each state (but couldn’t necessarily give the location within the state).

7. Yes

8. Not only can I place every state on a map, I can place them all in the correct spot on a map.

9. I can do better, I can hand-draw a map of all US states with labels.

   It won’t be perfect but they’ll be in the right place and bordering the right states.

   When I do I have to spend the most energy thinking about how North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky interact on the borders.

10. Probably not. Maybe 80 or 90% of them.

11. Yes, but partially because I had to help my kids with this so I’m refreshed in this knowledge. If you want to check yourself, I found [this quiz](https://www.sporcle.com/games/Matt/find_the_states) to help you test your knowledge.

12. I have a little party trick where I can freehand draw a map of the US with all state borders, and label every state *and* locate and label their capitals.

    This trick does not actually get me invited to many parties.

13. Yes. No struggle at all.

14. Yes, no struggle. I do struggle with a few state capitals though.

15. Absolutely.

16. Yes, I can. I’ve been doing so since elementary school. I can name all the state capitals as well and have a general idea of where most of them are located.

17. A [map puzzle such as this](https://www.amazon.com/Imagimake-Mapology-Capitals-Capitals-Educational/dp/B07D8RJ2X4) is a required birthday present for most kids by the time they’re 6 or 7.

18. yeah, sure. no problem. I can do the “US states with no boundaries” game on sporcle successfully but I have to skip some until I get more context, ie I wait until I have Florida before placing Georgia.

    game: https://www.sporcle.com/games/mhershfield/us-states-no-outlines-minefield

19. Yes. And countries.

20. Absolutely.

    A few of them will even be in the right places.

    It’s all the tiny states in the Northeast that I have trouble with.

21. Yes, this is something we learn in elementary school. For somebody that grew up here I’d frankly be shocked if they couldn’t.

22. I find it weird that people aren’t able to do this, but I’m also pro-geography

    The only one I understand is mixing up Vermont and New Hampshire. Every other state is unique enough that you should be able to distinguish them on a map

23. I can place them all on a map without a problem.

    Whether they’re in the right place or not, that’s a different story.

24. Every single one, their capitols, largest cities and significant land-forms.

    I can also list them from memory, but I can’t spell all of them without spell check.

    (Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Tennessee)

25. I could not. The farther from the west coast, the more I struggle. Especially all those small states in the NE. I think I could get ~75% right on the quizzes where if you get it wrong, it eventually tells you the right spot before moving on to the next state, making future states easier. But if I had to label a map with no feedback until the end, I’d probably get 25-50%. Confident on 25%, might guess right on another 25%