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Kermit power
Original Poster
14,874 posts
82 months
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Why do people find this surprising?
The US is geographically and numerically more or less the same size as Europe.
At least until fairly recently, Yanks didn't need a passport to go to Canada, Mexico or much of the Caribbean.
This gave them certainly as much geographical variety as Europe, albeit without so much cultural variety. They've got access to big cities, endless wilderness, baking hot beaches, snowy mountains and everything in between. Getting to anywhere else is a long haul flight.
If we didn't need a passport to travel inside Europe, how many people in this country would have one? I wouldn't be surprised to find that 70% of Britons haven't traveled outside Europe.
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hesnotthemessiah
2,121 posts
73 months
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I'm not surprised at all. Up to the mid 90s it was around 95% according to a statistic I read at university.
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Mr AJ
1,226 posts
40 months
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I don't have a passport, For various reasons i've never left the UK. So hardly surprised that someone living in an area as you described wouldn't have one either!.
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kambites
32,864 posts
90 months
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I wonder if over 75% of Europeans have never left Europe? Wouldn't be at all surprised.
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drivin_me_nuts
13,763 posts
80 months
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Some would see this as a good thing ...
Anyway, I thought it was universally understood that when they fancy a world tour they just fire up the big red 1.
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DWS
332 posts
87 months
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To be honest I would think more people than you think would have one in the UK as we are:
a) non shengen country.
b)Together with quite a number of tourists who visit the likes of Egypt/north africa and dare I say the US.
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rohrl
3,730 posts
14 months
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I don't think US citizens need a passport to visit Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas and a bunch of other neighbouring countries so the story may not be as clear as first imagined.
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FloppyRaccoon
1,916 posts
35 months
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Probably partly to do with you now requiring a passport to cross the North and South borders I would think.
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doogz
18,686 posts
56 months
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rohrl said: I don't think US citizens need a passport to visit Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas and a bunch of other neighbouring countries so the story may not be as clear as first imagined. Perhaps. But if you'd read the OP, instead of imagining what it said, you'd see he already mentioned that  Do you need a passport to visit other countries in the EU?
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kambites
32,864 posts
90 months
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doogz said: Do you need a passport to visit other countries in the EU? If you're British, yes (except for Ireland). Europeans from countries with ID cards can travel on them.
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HD Adam
1,636 posts
53 months
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rohrl said: I don't think US citizens need a passport to visit Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas and a bunch of other neighbouring countries so the story may not be as clear as first imagined. They didn't but they do now. HTH
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TheHeretic
68,017 posts
124 months
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It is a big place. You can go really quote far without requiring a passport.
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mat777
2,995 posts
29 months
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Perhaps its explains why they think Australia is in the middle east and the Vietnam is next to Russia...
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otolith
19,372 posts
73 months
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Kermit power said: Why do people find this surprising?
The US is geographically and numerically more or less the same size as Europe. Harumph, I clicked on this intending to make that point.
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TheHeretic
68,017 posts
124 months
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mat777 said: Perhaps its explains why they think Australia is in the middle east and the Vietnam is next to Russia... When I first got car insurance in the US, they needed to take the address on my drivers licence. Being a UK address, the woman sat there looking at the screen for some minutes, when she asked me which state the United Kingdom was in.
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GroundEffect
7,203 posts
25 months
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Europe has almost double the population of the US...
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rohrl
3,730 posts
14 months
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TheHeretic said: When I first got car insurance in the US, they needed to take the address on my drivers licence. Being a UK address, the woman sat there looking at the screen for some minutes, when she asked me which state the United Kingdom was in.  It does bemuse me when I hear some complaints along the lines of "So this hotel receptionist in Nowhere, USA had never even heard of Northamptonshire" as if they should have. I'll bet that if most people on PH went round their own offices they'd find that half their colleagues or more couldn't tell you whether Atlanta or Tbilisi was capital of Georgia.
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kambites
32,864 posts
90 months
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Even not knowing where the UK is is hardly a heinous crime... it's about the same size as Uganda; what proportion of British adults could point to Uganda on a map? I bet a significant number wouldn't even know what continent it's in.
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doogz
18,686 posts
56 months
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The UK is one of their greatest allies though. I don't think comparing the UK to Uganda in this case is particularly sensible.
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kambites
32,864 posts
90 months
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doogz said: The UK is one of their greatest allies though. I don't think comparing the UK to Uganda in this case is particularly sensible. Uganda is in the Commonwealth, so hardly completely unrelated to us. I don't really see why being a military ally makes them any more likely to know where we are on a map, anyway? ETA: If you want somewhere more comparable, how about Japan? What proportion of British adults do you think could point to Japan on a map? I'd bet on under 90%.
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