Test your knowledge about the world using these 13 questions.
1. In all low-income countries across the world today, how many girls finish primary school?
A. 20%
B. 40%
C. 60%?
2. Where does the majority of the world population live?
A. Low income countries
B. Middle income countries
C. High income countries?
3. In the last 20 years the proportion of the world population living in extreme poverty has?
A. almost doubled
B. remained more or less the same
C. almost halved?
4. What is the life expectancy of the world today?
A. 50 years
B. 60 years
C. 70 years?
5. There are 2 billion children in the world today aged 0-15 years old, how many children will there be in year 2100 according to the United Nations?
A. 4 billion
B. 3 billion
C. 2 billion?
6. The UN predicts that by 2100 the world population will have increased by another 4 billion people, what is the main reason?
A. There will be more children aged below 15
B. There will be more adults aged 15-74
C. There will be more very old people aged 75 and older?
7. How did the number of deaths per year from natural disasters change over the last 100 years?
A. More than doubled
B. Remained about the same
C. Decreased to less than half?
8. There are roughly 7 billion people in the world today, which options more accurately represents where they live?
A. 1 billion in Europe, 4 billion in Asia, 1 billion in Africa and 1 billion in America.
B. 1 billion in Europe, 3 billion in Asia, 2 billion in Africa and 1 billion in America
C. 1 billion in Europe, 3 billion in Asia, 1 billion in Africa and 2 billion in America?
9. How many of the world's 1 year old children today have been vaccinated against some diseases?
A. 20%
B. 50%
C. 80%?
10. Worldwide, 30 year old men have spent 10 years in school on average, how many years have women of the same age spent in school?
A. 9 years
B. 6 years
C. 3 years?
11. In 1996 tigers, giant pandas and black rhinos were all listed as endangered, how many of these three species are critically endangered today?
A. 2 of them
B. 1 of them
C. none of them?
12. How many people in the world have some access to electricity?
A. 20%
B. 50%
C. 80%?
13. Global climate experts believe that over the next 100 years the average temperature will on average?
A. get warmer
B. remain the same
C. get colder?
Answers:
1C, 2B, 3C, 4C, 5C, 6B, 7C, 8A, 9C, 10A, 11C, 12C, 13A
In 2017 we asked nearly 12,000 people in 14 countries to answer our questions. They scored on average just two correct answers out of the first 12. No one got full marks, and just one person (in Sweden) got 11 out of 12. A stunning 15 percent scored zero.
Perhaps you think that better-educated people would do better? Or people who are more interested in the issues? I certainly thought that once, but I was wrong. I have tested audiences from all around the world and from all walks of life: medical students, teachers, university lecturers, eminent scientists, investment bankers, executives in multinational companies, journalists, activists, and even senior political decision makers. These are highly educated people who take an interest in the world. But most of them—a stunning majority of them—get most of the answers wrong. Some of these groups even score worse than the general public; some of the most appalling results came from a group of Nobel laureates and medical researchers. It is not a question of intelligence. Everyone seems to get the world devastatingly wrong.
