Hannah
24 September 2019
When you think of an island, what’s the first place that comes to mind? There’s a high chance it’ll be somewhere Mediterranean, like Ibiza, Corfu or Cyprus, or somewhere more exotic and far-flung, such as Barbados, Hawaii or the Maldives. But there are plenty of stunning islands close to our own British shores too, also worthy of our attention – take the Isle of Wight as a case in point – an island many of us may have not known even existed.
To help raise awareness of the beautiful islands gathered all around Great Britain’s shores, we thought we’d put the British public to the test and find out how well they were able to place 10 UK islands, or groups of islands, on a UK map. Over 1,400 people from all over the UK took our quiz, which produced some interesting results. Read on to find out how the UK population as well as your local region got on.
Want to see how you fare in the quiz? Click the button below to put your UK island knowledge to the test.
Results for all of the UK
On the whole, the Great British public didn’t let us down, scoring just under 7 out of 10 on average. The Isle of Wight was the best-known UK island, with over 90% of people placing it successfully on our map, followed by Cornwall’s Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Man.
Scottish islands were the least familiar to our quiz participants – only 44% knew where the Outer Hebrides were, and only 49% were able to place Arran successfully. Another interesting result is that a quarter of Brits don’t know where the Isle of Man is.
Looking at which British regions did the best, Scotland came out on top, scoring just under 8 out of 10 on average, while the South West fared the worst, scoring just over 6 out of 10 on average.
Results for Scotland
Scots can celebrate with the fact that they beat the rest of the UK and came out on top for their UK island, scoring just under 8 out of 10 on average. What they might be surprised about, however, is their knowledge of their own islands: 3 out of 10 Scots were unable to successfully locate the Outer Hebrides on the map, and more Scots were able to place the Isles of Scilly than any of the Scottish islands.
Results for Wales
Wales came middle of the table in terms of overall results, scoring 7 out of 10 on average. They can be proud of the fact that 96% of them were able to place the only Welsh island in the quiz, Anglesey, successfully on the map. They struggled most with the Scottish islands, with only 46% able to locate Arran and 39% able to locate the Outer Hebrides.
Results for London
Londoners came second-to-last overall, and their answers offered up a few surprising results. Only a third of Londoners were able to correctly locate some of the Scottish islands, such as Arran and the Outer Hebrides, and a third were also unable to pinpoint the Isle of Man: a much higher proportion than the rest of the UK. Even more surprising from a regional perspective is that 1 in 5 were unable to place the Isle of Sheppey, which is just 40 miles from the M25.
Results for the South West
Despite being a region famed for its coastline, the South West actually fared the worst overall, scoring just over 6 out of 10 on average. As expected, they were the best at locating the Isles of Scilly, with 91% getting this correct. Like the rest of the country, many from the West Country struggled to place the Outer Hebrides and Arran.
Results for the South East
Those from the South East did well in placing the Isle of Wight on our map, with 95% successfully doing so, but what was surprising was that 1 in 6 were unable to locate Sheppey, which is just off the shores of Kent. More South Easterners were able to correctly find the Isles of Scilly, on the opposite side of the country, than their very own Sheppey.
Results for the North West
The North West came middle of the table overall, scoring especially well for Anglesey and the Isle of Wight. What is surprising is that more North Westerners were able to locate these islands over the Isle of Man, which is found in the Irish Sea between the North West and Northern Ireland.
Results for the North East
The North East fared well in being able to successfully place the islands, with at least half of the participants from this region able to correctly locate each island. Anglesey was the best-known island, with 90% of people getting this one right. Arran and the Outer Hebrides were the least-known, but still 55% of the public here were able to correctly place them.
Results for Yorkshire
Yorkshire had the second-best result after Scotland, with at least 50% of the participants getting each island correct. The Isle of Wight was the best-known island, while the Outer Hebrides was the least-known.
Results for the Midlands
The Midlands came middle of the table overall, struggling with the Scottish islands in particular – just 1 in 3 were able to successfully place the Outer Hebrides. The Isle of Wight was the best-known, with 92% correctly placing it, followed by Anglesey, which 87% got correct.
Take the quiz
Think you can do better? See how you compare to the rest of the UK and try the quiz for yourself.
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Disclaimer: Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information at the time of writing,
please ensure you check carefully before making any decisions based on the contents within this article.