I've just realised why people don't know about Geography. It's because it's not taught (or at least I don't think it is) in the way that we were taught.
I remember that when I was at junior school there were maps of the world in the class rooms. We had lessons about a particular country which included the names of the capital city, the major rivers, mountain ranges, main trades etc etc. We also learned about the oceans and the continents.
When we lived in Suffolk we were regularly accosted by school children with clip boards and a questionnaire, the questions included why were we there, where had we come from, how did we get there, if we drove where did we park and one or two more. This was their Geography lesson.
One day my employer's son who attended an expensive fee paying school was telling us about a music festival he'd been to in Spain. He remarked how beautiful it was looking over the sea. His father asked him which one was that and the response, after some thought, was the Pacific.
I'm constantly amazed at how when a geography question comes up on a quiz programme most contestants reply that they haven't been to that country so they don't know.