London: A London-based market research firm has said that India is the second most ignorant nation after Mexico. The firm conducted a poll in which 25,000 people from 33 countries were asked about thier opinion.
The questions which were asked to the respondents had various topics like like inequality, non-religious population, female employment and internet access.
"Mexico and India receive the dubious honour of being the most inaccurate in their perceptions on these issues, while South Koreans are the most accurate, followed by the Irish," the survey said.
The rankings of the nations were based on the "Index of Ignorance" which was determined by questions about wealth that the top one per cent own, obesity, non-religious population, immigration, living with parents, female employment, rural living and internet access.
Most Indians "underestimate" how much of their country's wealth is concentrated in the hands of the top 1 per cent, the survey said, adding that the top 1 per cent actually own an "incredible" 70 per cent of all wealth.
The survey also found that most Indians "hugely overestimate" the proportions of non-religious people in the country to be 33 per cent when the true figure is under 1 per cent.
While Israel significantly underestimates the proportion of female employment (by 29 percentage points), people in countries like India, Mexico, South Africa and Chile all think of more women in work than really are, it said.
India fell in the list of nations which overestimate representation by women in politics.
Countries like Columbia, Russia, India and Brazil all think there is better female representation than there really is, the survey said.
However, the Indian population seriously underestimates the rural population of the country and thinks more people have internet access than in reality.
In India the average guess among online respondents for internet access is 60 per cent - an overestimation of the true picture of 41 percentage points, the survey added.
( With PTI Inputs)
