South Africa scores low in ignorance index

Durban - South Africa is one of the most ignorant countries in the world, a new Ipsos Perils of Perception Survey has found.

The findings are based on a survey of people's knowledge about their own country.

Known as The 2016 Index of Ignorance and produced by Ipsos MORI, it includes information from 27 250 interviews of people aged 16 to 64 carried out between September and November.

The survey took in populations from 40 countries, with between 500 and 1,000 people surveyed in each.

Participants were asked a number of questions about their society, including their country's population, healthcare spending, home ownership and the proportion of Muslims living in their country. The findings were then collated to create the index.

The questions in the survey included, out of 100 people, how many do you think are Muslim?

In South Africa, respondents answered that there were 22 when in actual fact it was 1.7

The USA, the richest country in the world, ranked as one of the most ignorant countries, below many less developed countries.