The most ignorant countries in the world, mapped

The coronavirus pandemic has led to an uptick in ignorant behaviour (most notably from the president of the United States).

In such dangerous times, ignorance can have deadly consequences.

But which country in the world is the most ignorant?

The answer to this question might be found in a 2017 study, which revealed that a large number of people in some of the world's most richest nations are ignorant of a lot of important topics.

The Perils of Perception 2017 study by Ipsos MORI assessed the perception of 29,133 people around the world on topics concerning their nation and others.

The subjects included murder and suicide rates, deaths at the result of terrorism, teenage pregnancy, foreign-born prisoners and health issues such as vaccinations and diabetes.

Other issues covered in the interviews included religion, consumption of sugar and alcohol and the percentage of people using Facebook and smartphones.

Results showed that people in nearly all of the 38 nations which took part in the study were ignorant of the aforementioned topics but some were worse than others.

The compiled data showed that Scandinavians had the best idea of what was happening at home and abroad as Denmark, Norway and Sweden were all found to be the most accurate, with the Swedes coming out on top.

At the other end of the spectrum, the bottom three in descending order were The Philippines, Brazil and South Africa.

Great Britain placed ninth in accuracy with the United States down in sixteenth, behind Russia, Germany and China.

It remains to be seen whether the need to be well informed during the pandemic will change how people seek out and consume information.

Based on this data from 2017, providing there's been no big changes, some countries need to improve more than others.

HT Ipsos