According to a new global poll by Ipsos Mori, Americans greatly overestimate the US unemployment rate. They thought it was 32% when it is actually 6%. They also vastly overestimated the teen pregnancy rate – the average answer was 24% when it is really 3%. Respondents also hugely overestimated the percentage of immigrants, Muslims, and senior citizens in the country.
It turns out that we are not alone. Respondents in Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and nine European countries overestimated those same numbers. Sadly, though, we did worse than most. The US ranked only behind the Italians in a measure Ipsos calls the Index of Ignorance.
Submitted by Professor Carolyn Hsu