Can The Average New Yorker Pass A US Citizenship Test

With the huge increase in funding that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has received thanks to the Big Beautiful Bill, the number of people who have died this year alone at the hands of ICE and other federal agencies, along with protest that have been gripping the nation, the legal status of people who reside in the country has been in the news a whole lot lately.

There are millions of people who immigrate to the United States every year and achieve citizenship and residency through a long and complicated process. According to the Carnegie Corporation, it can take 3-5 years to be eligible to become a citizen after having a Green Card, which itself can take several years to get.

Once you do all that, the final hurdle for many is having to pass a citizenship test. According to the Immigration and Nationality Act, anyone who wants to become a citizen has to demonstrate an understanding of the English language, including an ability to read, write, and speak words in ordinary usage in the English language, and demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of U.S. history and government.

Most American's Can't Pass a Citizenship Test

It makes sense that anyone who wants to move to a new country would need to learn a fair bit about it before they become citizens. Unfortunately, according to the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, very few Americans can pass the test that shows a basic knowledge of American history, society, and government. US Citizenship and Immigration Services reports that more than 95.7% of immigrants who take the test pass it on their first or second time they take it, while only 36% of Americans can pass the same multiple-choice test.

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The citizenship test, which is officially called a Naturalization Civics Test, is an oral test consisting of 20 questions from the list of 128 civics test questions. In order to pass the test, an immigrant has to answer 12 of the 20 questions correctly, or earn a 60% score. Missing 9 or more questions means you fail.

The Federal government publishes the full list of 128 questions.

Did you go over the test? How many questions do you think you got right? The answers are below if you want to see how you did.

What do you think, should Americans know more about their country than people who immigrate to it?