Poll: 1 in 3 Americans can pass citizenship test

Only about a third of Americans can pass a multiple-choice test consisting of questions from the U.S. Citizenship Test, according to a new poll released Wednesday by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.

Around 60 percent of respondents didn’t know which countries the U.S. fought in World War II, according to the poll. The results also found that 57 percent did not know how many Justices sit on the Supreme Court; 72 percent either incorrectly identified or were unsure of which states were part of the 13 original states; and 12 percent believed Dwight D. Eisenhower commanded troops in the Civil War. 

{mosads}“With voters heading to the polls next month, an informed and engaged citizenry is essential,” Woodrow Wilson Foundation President Arthur Levine said in a press release. “Unfortunately this study found the average American to be woefully uninformed regarding America’s history and incapable of passing the U.S. Citizenship Test. It would be an error to view these findings as merely an embarrassment. Knowledge of the history of our country is fundamental to maintaining a democratic society, which is imperiled today.”

The poll found an age discrepancy among the results. Respondents age 65 and older scored the best, with 74 percent of them answering at least six out of ten questions correctly, which would correspond with a passing score. Only 19 percent of respondents age 45 or under passed the exam. 

The poll, conducted by Lincoln Park Strategies, surveyed a thousand U.S. citizens and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.