Remembering the names of five oceans seems to be to much for an average busy Brit.
In a bid to discover the geographical knowledge of Britons when it comes to the oceans and seas around the World, an independent online cruising agency www.bonvoyage.co.uk based in the UK set out to discover how many individuals would be able to successfully list all five of the World’s oceans and more than ten of the seas.
It turns out that only 29% of Britons questioned in a poll were able to successfully name all five of the World’s oceans and just 14% were able to correctly list more than ten of the seas around the globe. The most well-known ocean was the Atlantic, whilst the most likely to be forgotten emerged as the Antarctic/Southern Ocean.
The study, conducted by www.bonvoyage.co.uk questioned a total of 1,837 Britons aged 18 and over for the study. In order to avoid bias in the results, participants were given an allocated amount of time in which to answer questions, and were not allowed to look elsewhere for help with answers (for example, search engines, asking friends and family etc.).
Firstly, individuals were asked to state how many oceans there are around the World, with 54% correctly stating ‘five’ as their answer, whilst 31% thought that there were four. Furthermore, 12% of those polled believed there to be seven oceans in the World, perhaps confusing oceans with the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Despite 54% of participants correctly identifying the number of oceans around the globe, when it came to listing them, just 29% of total respondents could accurately recall all the individual names. The most well-known ocean emerged as the Atlantic, with 89% of those asked correctly naming it, whilst just 28% of respondents remembered to list the Antarctic Ocean (sometimes referred to as the Southern Ocean).
Next, participants were polled on their knowledge of the seas of the world. The team at bonvoyage.co.uk were eager to discover how many respondents would be able to correctly list more than ten of the World’s seas. Just 14% were able to correctly name eleven or more seas, with the most commonly known emerging as the North Sea, the Caribbean Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
Steph Curtin, Cruise Development Manager at bonvoyage.co.uk, made the following comments on the results of the study:
“As pretty much anybody working in the cruise industry will tell you, it is near impossible not to develop a somewhat encyclopaedic knowledge of the World’s oceans and seas, especially the ones that have regular cruises passing through them. Having said that, I was a little taken aback to discover that less that 30% of those polled were able to name the five oceans of the world.”
She continued, “The only explanation I can think of for such low figures would be that many of those polled were unaware that the Arctic/Southern Ocean had become an official ocean of the World in the year 2000. Or maybe we should’ve just listened slightly harder during those school’s Geography lessons!”
For the record, the five oceans are as follows: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Antarctic/Southern.
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