This explains a lot of the GMO / nuclear paranoia in Europe.

In 15 European nations, including Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, the scientific literacy rate was between 10 and 19% US scores very highly in Adult Science Literacy. The bad news is that global scientific literacy is shockingly low. Among the 34 nations tested in 2005, the SLR rose above 30% in only one nation, Sweden, whose SLR was 35%. For the United States, the good news is that in all of Miller’s results since the beginning of testing in 1988, the US scored above nearly all other nations. In the 2005 tests, for example, the US ranked second with an SLR of 28%.

The author of a 2009 study concluded that “the college and university general education requirement to take at least a year of science courses (fairly unique to US universities, where “breadth requirements” are emphasized) makes a major contribution to the civic scientific literacy of US citizens,” and that the surprisingly high US SLR is a result of the positive impact of these college-level science courses for non-science students.

To be clear, America is the only major country that requires college students to complete a full year of science. As a result, science literacy of US adults is higher than in other developed nations.

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