London: Almost six out of every 10 Americans were unable to locate Iraq on a world map.
More than 40 per cent of them could not locate Pakistan as found in a survey conducted by the National Geographic Society in America.
According to the survey most of the young Americans aged 18 to 24 have "shoddy geography skills".
America might have invaded Iraq around three years ago, and Pakistan might be its ally in its war against global terrorism for more than six years, but American students seem to be oblivious of all such happenings as they find it hard to locate both, Iraq and Pakistan on a world map.
To their horror, the survey commission officials found that Almost 50 percent of them were incapable of pointing the state of Mississippi.
One-third of the students who were questioned were not able to find Louisiana on the map of US despite it being the same state where Hurricane Katrina struck last August and took several lives causing damages worth billions of dollars.
National Geographic Society’s president, John Fahey said,"Its not good. It shows the knowledge is pretty appalling. I think this is born out of a sense that people believe that they can be isolated here - culturally and geographically."
“Geographic illiteracy impacts our economic well-being, our relationships with other nations and the environment, and isolates us from our world."
"Geography is what helps us make sense of our world by showing the connections between people and places. Without it, our young people are not ready to face the challenges of the increasingly interconnected world of the 21st century," he added.
Ironically, this too looked like an improvement, when these results were compared with the results of a similar study that was carried out in the year 2002.
It was then found that only 13 per cent of the Americans could point to Iraq on a map, while almost ten percent could not even point to the US.
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