Americans are really bad at geography.

One study of 18 to 24 years olds found that:

• Half could not find New York State on a map of the United States.
• A third of the respondents could not find Louisiana.
• 48 percent couldn’t locate Mississippi.
• Told they could escape an approaching hurricane by evacuating to the northwest, only two-thirds could indicate which way northwest is on a map.

Many Americans also lack basic map-reading skills.

Every location on earth can be plotted given two numbers (or “coordinates”). The two numbers are latitude and longitude. Latitude lines run parallel to the equator. They provide a numerical way to measure how far north or south of the equator is located. Latitude locations are given as __ degrees North or __ degrees South. Longitude lines (which are also known as “meridians”) show how far a location is east or west of a universal vertical line called the Prime Meridian, which is located in Greenwich, England. Longitude locations are given as __ degrees east or __ degrees west.