North Polian, German, or Klingon?: Americans really don't agree on Santa Claus' nationality
- Americans can't agree on Santa Claus' nationality.
- According to an INSIDER poll, just over 15% of people think Santa Claus is from all countries, while just over 9% think Santa is from no country.
- Popular responses also included White, German, American, and Fictional.
Americans can't seem to agree where exactly Santa Claus was born.
According to an INSIDER poll of 1,136 people, the most popular answer when asked what nation Santa Claus is from was "all," with 15.1% of the responses, or "none," with 9.1% of the answers.
In order to leave the question as open-ended as possible, we allowed respondents to write in their answer. The format of the survey led to a wide array of responses, with many people not even citing a country.
Coming in third was some variation of the North Pole, with 7.9%, of respondents identifying Santa's base of operations as his birthplace.
Following the top of the world in popularity was white or Caucasian, which - despite not technically being a nation - garnered 83 responses, or 7.3% of the total.
St. Nicholas, the Catholic saint who became the basis for many of the Santa Claus myths, was born in what is now Turkey but was at the time controlled by Greeks. Nicholas became the bishop of Myra, a city on the Southern coast of the country, and became known as the patron saint of gifts and children.
Of the respondents to our poll just 20, or 1.8%, identified Turkey as Santa Claus' birthplace while 33, or 2.9%, identified a Hellenic state such as Greece or Turkey. One person did respond Myra, the name of the town where St. Nicholas was bishop.
More than 10% of people thought that Santa was from some country in Europe, with the Nordic countries garnering 8.9% as well. Sixty-eight people, or 6%, thought Santa was from the United States, while 17, or 1.5%, gave some iteration of the British Isles.
Here's a rundown of the responses received 10 times or more:
- All: 172 respondents (15.1%)
- None: 103 (9.1%)
- North Polian/North Polish/North Polean: 90 (7.9%)
- White/Caucasian 83 (7.3%)
- German: 67 (5.9%)
- American: 66 (5.8%)
- Fictional: 49 (4.3%)
- Norwegian: 32 (2.8%)
- Turkish: 20 (1.8%)
- Swedish: 18 (1.6%)
- Canadian: 16 (1.4%)
- Finnish: 16 (1.4%)
- Supernatural: 15 (1.3%)
- Dutch: 15 (1.3%)
- European: 15 (1.3%)
- Arctic: 12 (1.1%)
- Greek: 11 (1.0%)
- Black: 10 (0.9%)
There were also a few interesting responses that did not garner much support. More colorful responses included three votes for Martian; two votes for Klingon, the fictional species from the Star Trek series, conservative, and Clausian; and single votes for Coca Cola, alien, satanic, "Holidayese," hippie, and Amazon.
SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weight its sample based on race or income. Total 1,136 respondents, margin of error plus or minus 2.97 percentage points with 95% confidence level.