75 percent of Brits unable to name Great Britain's three countries

London, Nov.20 : Over 75 percent of citizens have not been able to correctly identify the three countries that make up Great Britain, according to a new survey. More than half wrongly believe that English is the most common language, while just over a third (37 percent) correctly identified it as Mandarin Chinese, The Telegraph reports.

And less than a quarter correctly identified England, Wales and Scotland as being the countries that make up Great Britain.

The poll of 2,000 adults was commissioned by geographic technology company ESRI UK to mark Geography Awareness Week.

When asked to rank a list of UK cities, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham and Luton, in the order they are located, from north to south, eight in 10 correctly placed Newcastle and Luton.

But only half could only identify Leeds as the second most northerly, while a similar number put Sheffield correctly in third place.

Dr Rita Gardner, director of the Royal Geographical Society, said: "The poll raises some questions about how engaged people are with the many geographical issues in the wider world and about geographical factual knowledge."

ANI