On Feb. 5 the Pew Research Center released a report on its latest NewsIQ Quiz, “What the Public Knows – In Pictures, Maps, Graphs and Symbols,” based on interviews with 1,041 randomly sampled adults nationwide. Since Feb. 5, more than 350,000 people have taken the quiz on the PewResearch.org website. A large majority of them took the quiz after hearing about it on social media, in a blog or news story or from a friend or family member’s recommendation. Others may have found the quiz while visiting the Pew Research web site for other reasons.

How do all of these quiz-takers on our website – who, unlike the national sample we interviewed, volunteered to take a quiz about their knowledge of public affairs — compare with the national sample of adults? The answer: very well.

Those who took the quiz on our website were considerably more knowledgeable than those who responded to our national survey. Nearly one-third of quiz takers on our website (32%) aced the test – answering all 13 questions correctly – compared with just 8% of adults nationally. And nearly one-fourth (24%) missed only one question, compared with 11% among the general public. Overall, our website visitors correctly answered an average of 11.2 of the 13 questions, compared with an average of 8.5 correct among the national sample of adults.

For the most part, the questions that were easiest for the general public were also the easiest for our volunteer quiz takers. Nationally, 87% correctly identified the Star of David, while 96% of quiz takers on our website did so. Nearly eight in ten (79%) in the general public recognized the Twitter logo, as did 94% of web quiz takers. The hardest question for the general public – identifying Elizabeth Warren from a set of four photos– was also the hardest for those who came to our site to take the quiz: 43% of the general public could identify the new Massachusetts senator, compared with 71% of our visitors.

One big reason for the good performance of our visitors is that most of them are well educated, and college-educated people tend to do very well on the quiz. Nearly three-quarters of our website quiz takers (74%) are college graduates, while another 20% have completed at least some college. Among the 1,041 adults in the general public sample, only 29% had completed college and 29% had some college experience.

And to state the obvious, another reason may simply be human nature: People who are knowledgeable about politics are more likely than others to volunteer to take knowledge tests.

Scott Keeter is Director of Survey Research for the Pew Research Center.

Are you more news-savvy than the average American?

Test your knowledge of the major political parties by taking our short 13-question quiz. Then see how you did in comparison with 1,000 randomly sampled adults asked the same questions in a national survey conducted Mar. 29-Apr. 1, 2012 by the Pew Research Center.

When you finish, you will be able to compare your News IQ with the average American, as well as with the scores of college graduates and those who didn’t attend college; with men and women; and with people your age as well as other ages.

Read the report: What the Public Knows about the Political Parties
(No peeking! If you are going to take the quiz, do it first before reading the analysis).

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Other reports in our ongoing study of news knowledge: See October 2011, March

2011, November

2010, July

2010, January

2010, October

2009, April

2009, December

2008, February

2008, September

2007 and April

2007.

The Pew Research Center updates the News IQ quiz every few months by conducting a nationwide survey of Americans. Each version of the quiz asks a wide range of questions about current events and issues as well as background facts and concepts that are relevant to the news.

The new survey includes a mixture of standard multiple-choice items as well as questions that use photographs, maps and symbols. It was conducted completely online Sept. 30-Oct. 11, 2011, among a random sample of 1,168 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

Of the 19 items on the survey, 10 are standard multiple-choice questions, many of which are similar or identical to those from previous political knowledge surveys. Of the other nine, five use pictures of public figures, two use maps and two use religious or political symbols. On average, quiz takers correctly answer 11.5 of the 19 items, for a score of 60% correct.

Read the results of the news quiz, but before you do, take the quiz and see how you do in comparison to others.

Take the Latest Quiz Online!

Before you read the report, we invite you to test your own News IQ by taking the latest interactive knowledge quiz. The short quiz includes the same questions that were included in the national poll. Participants will instantly learn how they did on the quiz in comparison with the general public as well as with people like them.

To take the latest quiz, click on this link: http://www.pewresearch.org/politicalquiz/

The public is generally aware of basic facts about several recent national and international news stories, but is much less knowledgeable about current politics in Washington, according to the Pew Research Center’s latest News IQ survey.

About seven-in-ten know that Hillary Clinton currently serves as U.S. secretary of state (73%) and that Moammar Gadhafi is the leader of Libya (71%). An even higher percentage (80%) knows that that the “No Child Left Behind” law deals with education policy.

Yet Americans continue to struggle with questions about Congress and its leaders. Just 38% correctly say that Republicans hold a majority of seats in the House — and not in the Senate or the full Congress. Shortly after the midterm elections in November, slightly more (46%) knew that the Republicans had a majority only in the House.

And only about four-in-ten (43%) are able to correctly identify John Boehner as House speaker; 19% say incorrectly that Nancy Pelosi is still speaker of the House. In November, shortly after the GOP won the House, 38% named Boehner as the presumptive speaker and 13% named Pelosi.

The latest News IQ Quiz, conducted March 17-20 among 1004 adults, also finds that many Americans have a hard time answering detailed questions about U.S. government spending. Roughly three-in-ten (29%) correctly say that the federal government spends more on Medicare than on scientific research, education or on interest on the national debt. Slightly more (36%) say that interest on the debt is the greater government expenditure.

As in the past, however, most Americans (57%) are able to correctly estimate the unemployment rate (currently about 9%). A majority (63%) also knows that the main focus of the recent protests and political debates in Wisconsin was on union bargaining rights.

Reflecting his growing visibility, 55% identify Mark Zuckerberg as the founder of the social networking site Facebook. This is the only question on the survey that far more of those younger than age 30 answered correctly than those ages 65 and older (63% vs. 25%).

Congress a Mystery to Many

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to be aware of the details of divided power in Washington. Still, only about half of Republicans (49%) know that the GOP controls only the House, compared with 39% of independents and just 33% of Democrats.

This is little changed from November, shortly after the election, when 55% of Republicans knew that the GOP had a majority only in the House. The proportion of Democrats who know that the Republicans have a majority only in the House has fallen since November (from 45% to 33%).

Half of Republicans (50%) can identify Boehner as House speaker; in November, about the same percentage of Republicans (47%) knew that Boehner was the incoming speaker. Just 42% of Democrats and 41% of independents correctly identify Boehner as House speaker, which also is little changed from November.

Young people are only dimly aware of the new balance of power in Washington. Just 26% of those younger than age 30 think that Republicans have a majority only in the House and 21% correctly name Boehner as speaker. About as many (29%) name Nancy Pelosi as House speaker.

Pew Research Center news interest surveys have found that while the 2010 elections and their aftermath garnered strong public interest and intense media coverage, much of the focus in the first few months of 2011 has been on breaking news — such as the upheaval in the Middle East and Northern Africa and the deadly earthquake and tsunami in Japan. In recent weeks, domestic politics — even the early stages of the 2012 presidential campaign — have gotten little attention. (See the News Interest Index, March 30, 2011.)

Partisan Differences in Knowledge

On most questions partisan differences are slight. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to correctly answer three of the 11 questions.

Seven-in-ten Republicans (70%) know that public employee union rights were the subject of protests in Wisconsin, compared with 58% of Democrats. Republicans are more likely to know that the GOP controls the House (49% vs. 33%) and that coal is the leading source of U.S. electricity (44% vs. 34%).

Persistent Age Gap in Knowledge

As in past installments of the News IQ Quiz, young people struggle with questions about politics and economics, but are better informed on technology questions.

Six-in-ten (63%) of those younger than age 30 know that Mark Zuckerberg is the founder of Facebook. That compares with just 45% of those over age 50 who know this.
Notably, three-quarters of young people (75%) also know that the “No Child Left Behind” law deals with education. Majorities across demographic and political groups correctly answered this question.

But young people are far less likely than older Americans to know that Moammar Gadhafi is the leader of Libya. About half (54%) say correctly that Gadhafi is the leader of Libya, 15% say he leads Egypt and 28% do not know. Large majorities in older age groups associate Gadhafi with Libya. (The survey was conducted March 17-20; the United States and its allies launched airstrikes against Gadhafi’s forces on March 19.)

Similarly, 46% of young people know that the protests in Wisconsin focused on unions rights for public employees. Majorities across older age groups were aware of this. And as in previous surveys, most young people are unable to correctly estimate the unemployment rate; 38% answered this correctly.

View the topline questionnaire and survey methodology at people-press.org.

Thank you for your wonderfully erudite inquiry; we are going to award you an honorary “15″ on the religious knowledge quiz. Indeed, you would have had a very strong case if we had conducted the survey in Hebrew, in which case the correct answer would have been Yom haShabbat and not Yom Shishi. But the survey was NOT conducted in Hebrew. It was given in English, and 94% of Jews who took the survey answered this question by saying that the Jewish Sabbath begins on FRIDAY (4% of self-identified Jews gave other answers, and 2% said they didn’t know). The 94% of Jews who said “Friday” could all be guilty of amphiboly, of course. Worse things have been said. But there was no question in the entire survey about which there was greater unanimity among the members of a religious group as to the correct answer. Not even Mormons were as monolithic in their answers about the Book of Mormon.

Alan Cooperman, Associate Director, Research and Gregory A. Smith, Senior Researcher, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

Before we get to your question, please don’t feel disappointed by your test performance. When we asked this current set of news quiz questions to a national sample of adults in a November 2010 survey the average American answered less than half of them correctly. Furthermore, only 39% of Americans knew the right answer to this specific question about the federal budget. Having answered 11 of 12 questions correctly, you should certainly still consider yourself up to date with current events.

As for the specific question you emailed about, question No. 11 of the online news quiz asks the quiz taker to select from among four possible programs (education, interest on the national debt, Medicare and national defense) the activity the U.S. government spends the most money on.

To help answer this question, pasted below is a chart created by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in August 2009 for the 2010 budget which illustrates how the federal government spends its money. (The OMB chart has also been reproduced on the website of the New York Times).

You are correct that the government spends more on entitlements (Social Security plus Medicare plus Medicaid plus other mandatory programs) than national defense, but remember, the question asked you to choose which among the four specific programs received the most money. Taken individually, none of the government’s mandatory-spending programs receives more money than national defense. Social Security is close, but that was not one of the answer options.

Also, while interest on the debt is substantial — it accounts for nearly as much money as Medicaid — the spending on interest is still well below the amount allocated for national defense.

The chart above, however, does not contain the most recent federal budget data released by the government. Pasted below is a similar chart from the most recent OMB report — Budget of the U.S. Government: Fiscal Year 2011 (PDF). You can find the chart in the section titled “Summary Tables,” and a host of other information about government spending in the full report. While this chart, unfortunately, does not contain the percentages of government spending by category, you can clearly see that the outlays for national defense (labeled “security discretionary”) are again clearly larger than the outlays for Medicare, net interest and all non-security discretionary spending (which includes a small slice for education).

Richard C. Auxier, Researcher/Editorial Assistant, Pew Research Center