Public Familiarity with Key Political and Iraq Facts

Take the Quiz Before You Read this Report!
As part of the Pew Knowledge Project, people are invited to test their own news IQ by taking an interactive knowledge quiz now available on the Pew Research Center website. 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. Take the quiz!

To find out, we invite you to take our short quiz about prominent people and major events in the news — then see how you did in comparison with 1,005 randomly sampled adults asked the same questions in a recent national survey conducted by the Pew Research Center.

You’ll also be able to compare your News IQ with the average scores of men and women; with college graduates as well as those who didn’t attend college; with people who are your age as well as with younger and older Americans. Are you more news-savvy than the average American? Here’s your chance to find out.

For an analysis of the findings from the poll on the public’s News IQ, read the full summary of findings. (No peeking! If you are going to take the quiz, do it first before reading the analysis.)

A full report on the early 2007 quiz is also available. It includes an analysis of how knowledge levels vary according to people’s news sources as well as their demographic characteristics.