Who will be the next speaker of the House of Representatives? What is the current inflation rate? How would you describe the current relationship between India and Pakistan? If you are younger than age 30, odds are you do not know the answer to these questions. Just 14% of young adults can identify John Boehner as the next speaker (closer to half of older adults can do so). Only 7% know the inflation rate is close to 1% (though, few in any age group know this). And just 27% know relations between India and Pakistan are unfriendly (just under half of older adults know this). In fact, on a 13-question political news quiz, adults ages 18 to 29 score below all other age groups on all but two questions. Young adults are by far the most knowledgeable on technology: 42% can identify Google’s new phone as the Android (only 4% of adults ages 65 and older can). And, surprisingly enough, Millennials also score the best on a question about government spending. Close to half (45%) know the federal government spends more on defense than three other programs listed, while just a third of adults older than age 50 know this. Read More

Russell Heimlich  is a former web developer at Pew Research Center.