Happy 4th of July, apparently 13% of us don’t know that the first American president was George Washington.

A civics poll conducted by YouGov for the 4th of July, looked at how much our fellow Americans knew about the history and laws of the country.

To summarize, it wasn’t very good.

Then again, are we really that surprised?

• Who was the first president?

  Approximately 1 in 8 people don’t know it was George Washington. A further 6% thought it was Abraham Lincoln. 4% chose John Adams, our 2nd president, and 3% chose Thomas Jefferson, our 3rd president.

• What did the Declaration of Independence do?

  78% of Americans knew it declared independence from Great Britain. 9% believed it freed the slaves. 7% thought it declared our independence from France, and 6% thought it gave women the right to vote.

• At what age can you vote for president?

  Only 80% of the people knew it was 18 years old. Three percent said 16, nine percent said 21, and seven percent said 35. People might have misread the question, 35 is the minimum age to be president.

• What are two rights of everyone living in the U.S.?

  86% got it right. The correct answer was “freedom of speech and religion.” But 4% think that “disobeying traffic laws” is one of them.

• Who was Ben Franklin?

  The correct answer was a “U.S. diplomat.” But 21% thought he was our third president, and 4% thought he invented the airplane.

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