These Are the Questions Americans Are Asking About Other Countries

Traveling is the best way to learn about different cultures, but Googling is a lot easier. When Americans want to know how other countries eat, communicate, and celebrate holidays, many of them fire up their search engines. To see which questions U.S. residents are asking about the rest of the world, check out the map above.

To make the graphic below, CashNetUSA analyzed data from Ahrefs, a search engine research tool. They found that politics, industry, money, languages, holidays, and cultural differences are the main topics Americans want to know about when researching other countries.

The way people talk dominates many search queries, with U.S. users asking Why does Canada speak French? and Why does Spain have a lisp? Some questions are asked of multiple countries; Americans want to know why both Finland and Ukraine want to join NATO, for example. Other searches are hyper-specific. The queries Why does Ireland have no snakes?, Why does Chile hate Maroon 5?, and Why does Sudan have more pyramids than Egypt? can be found on the map. For a bigger version of the image below, click here.

Many of these questions have straightforward answers. Users who Google Why does Ireland have no snakes? will find that St. Patrick had nothing to do with it. Ireland broke off from a larger landmass during an ice age, so there were no cold-blooded reptiles living on the island in the first place. The reasons behind Chile's hatred of Maroon 5, however, may be harder to pin down.