this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
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Mildly Interesting

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[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 1 points 4 days ago

5% of Americans own a car but not a drivers licence.

[–] Telodzrum@lemmy.world 175 points 1 week ago (7 children)

WTH, Americans think that 30% of the country lives in NYC?

[–] MBech@feddit.dk 145 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They think 21% are transgender too.... A lot of propaganda has gone through these people.

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 31 points 1 week ago (6 children)

“Transvestigation” is fucking insane and there are a lot of people who are convinced that many celebrities are secretly trans.

I think it mostly started with disgusting conspiracies about Michelle Obama (they literally believe that Sasha and Malia were kidnapped, even have specific missing children they think they are). Alex Jones and his ilk think Michelle was born Michael.

This was a thing that developed I think late in his presidency, then it expanded to several other figures. My favorite is Donald Glover as a trans man - I’ll gladly welcome Childish Gambino into my community.

It’s a serious “Q anon” type mentally ill worldview.

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[–] brian@lemmy.ca 59 points 1 week ago (7 children)

By the looks of it, it's 30% to NYC, 30% to Texas, and 30% to California. So 10% for literally everywhere else in the US. That's gotta be close, right?

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[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It's shocking how bad normal people are with basic math

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[–] j4k3@lemmy.world 102 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

Feels like they polled an elementary school in Philadelphia

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[–] Gloomy@mander.xyz 81 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Only 3% Atheists... And all of them are here on Lemmy.

[–] DrCake@lemmy.world 60 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I know Americans love Jesus a whole lot but really only 4%. That just seems crazy low

[–] walden@sub.wetshaving.social 88 points 1 week ago (9 children)

I think it's because people are still uncomfortable answering "atheist" on questionnaires and polls. It's easier to say "no religious affiliation", and most people are probably agnostic instead of atheist anyway.

[–] Gloomy@mander.xyz 45 points 1 week ago

You're right. This survey lists 29 % of Americans as "Religiously unaffiliated". Of those 5 % are Atheists, 6 % Agnostic and 19 % "Nothing in particular".

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[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 57 points 1 week ago (10 children)

These estimates are bananas, this only shows the systematic stupidification of Americans is highly successful.

[–] ProvableGecko@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago (4 children)

It's called propaganda! Relentless, unceasing bombardment of right wing brain rotting propaganda.

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[–] fluckx@lemmy.world 45 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

Americans believe 20% of the people have an income of over 1 million dollars and ~~20%~~ 30%of Americans live in NYC. Am I reading this chart wrong?

?????

NYC has a population of what? 10 million people? So they think there's only 30 million people living in the states?

[–] half_fiction@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (12 children)

NYC stood out to me too. We think 3 out of 10 people in the US live in NYC??? Lmaooo. I think a big part of it is that we just generally don't comprehend statistics because some of these numbers are wild.

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[–] CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.cafe 40 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Holy, holy, holy...they actually thought 21% of people are transgender? 1 in 5?? The only thing this proves is the polled Americans are stupid AF. 🙄🙄🙄

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[–] marius@feddit.org 38 points 1 week ago (4 children)

88% own a car, but only 82% have a license? Interesting

[–] redlemace@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You don't need a license to own a car. You need one to drive it.

[–] KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

You need one to drive it

legally

There are people, especially in the rural south, who own and operate a vehicle without a license.

Sometimes even congressmen

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[–] GreatBlueHeron@lemmy.ca 32 points 1 week ago (19 children)

33% have a college degree yet only 3% are atheist. That's batshit crazy. I can't imagine having the critical thinking skills needed for a degree and not using those skills to figure out that god is a fairy tale.

Yes I know lots of educated people are religious - I had several christian professors when I was studying mathematics / computer science. That doesn't make it any less crazy to me.

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[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 32 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I unfortunately have to downvote this as this is far too interesting to be mildly interesting.

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[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 32 points 1 week ago (3 children)

It seems the real thing this survey shows is most Americans are fucking dumb.

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[–] mimic_dev@lemmy.world 31 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They think almost 25% of people are trans?? Jesus fucking christ

[–] kayohtie@pawb.social 19 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It explains so much when it's played up so heavily in talk shows, despite the reality always having been very minor. Honestly I didn't realize me being gay was that much of a minority either. I kind of wish ADHD had been one in the list; if I remember the reality is like no more than 3-5% of the population but people assume it's over diagnosed as hell and like...not really. Maybe when there was the initial "rush" of sorts for parents during the 90's because of it seeming to help "unruly" kids, often just meaning imaginative or creative. In my case my parents didn't even know until my kindergarten teacher told them I should get evaluated, and yep.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

neurodivergence is seeing a boom in diagnoses because we now actually fucking diagnose neurodivergence instead of going "yeah the kid's a retard dump em in the bin"

[–] kayohtie@pawb.social 2 points 6 days ago

Oh for sure. It's still only in that like 5% range but what I meant was folks treat it like it's new and like...nah.

I hate it. I haven't run into anyone directly doubting my ADHD at all lately, but as a kid I definitely faced that stigma from some other kids saying it's "fake", and I think one of the teachers even said it.

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[–] Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de 26 points 1 week ago (12 children)

3% Atheists is such a bullshit number. There is a famous Pew poll, where they asked people two questions side by side, "are you an atheist" and "do you believe in any god", and 4% answered no to the first one and something like 20% answered no to the second one.

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[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 26 points 1 week ago (16 children)

The 42% are democrats and 47% are republicans is the true surprise. That is a huge difference even though it might not seem like it.

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[–] kazerniel@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago (4 children)

they estimated 21% of the population are trans, lol I wish 😂

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If 21% of the population was trans, republicans ain't winning elections again.

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[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Okay but Americans are numerically illiterate.

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[–] mgtzbos@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago (3 children)

How incredible to see the effect of political messaging on citizen/voter perception. It is that the exaggerations, lies, and outrage marketing clearly have an outsized effect. I wouldn’t say the US population is dumb. But I would say the manipulation of perception is too much for the average person to do their own research and come up with unbiased facts.

***To those dismissing this based on inconsistencies between topics, you can’t make those comparisons. There is some blending of data in the methodology that is appropriate in order to look at the range. This is only about the gap between perception and reality, and a stack rank.

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[–] Matt3999@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Only 4% union members - no wonder the US is so fucked for workers

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[–] teolan@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Americans believe a single city (New York) represents 30% of the American population?

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[–] DickFiasco@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Here's the methodology according to the YouGov website:

Methodology: This article includes findings from two U.S. News surveys conducted by YouGov on two nationally representative samples of 1,000 U.S. adult citizens interviewed online from January 14-20, 2022. The first survey included questions on groups involving race, education, income, family, gender, and sexuality, while the second survey included questions on religion, politics, and other miscellaneous groups. The samples were weighted according to gender, age, race, and education based on the 2018 American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, as well as 2016 and 2020 Presidential votes (or non-votes). Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. citizens. Real proportions were taken from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, YouGov’s internal poll results, and the results of other well-established polling firms. Most estimates were collected within the past three years; the oldest is from 2009. Because the real estimates presented cover a range of time periods, they may differ from actual population sizes at the time our survey was conducted.

[–] Eheran@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

Sample size of 1000 is absolutely nothing for so many detailed/granular questions. Let alone then weighing the few sub-groups etc.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 1 week ago (9 children)

Imagine thinking 1 in 5 people are trans... Just... This has to be a math understanding issue, right??

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[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 17 points 1 week ago (2 children)

People just have no idea what numbers mean. And, look at how education works here, who could blame them?

[–] potoo22@programming.dev 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Reminder that a McDonald's new burger campaign failed because people thought a ⅓ lb burger was smaller than a ¼ lb burger.

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[–] Subversive@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 week ago (5 children)
  • 64% white
  • 39% hispanic
  • 41% black
  • 29% asian
  • 30% jewish
  • 27% native americans

All the 230% of US population.

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