Think you’re maximizing your creative energies? Then you would be in the minority. Ad Age reports that a recent survey by Adobe observed 5,000 adults in the US, UK, Germany, France and Japan. Overall only 25 percent of people believe they are living up to their creative potential. In addition over 75 percent of people believe that their countries aren’t living up to their collective creative potential.

Ann Lewnes, the senior VP of marketing for Adobe told Ad Age that, “the purpose of the study was to get a gut feel for how people are feeling about creativity today.”

The study showed that Americans value creativity than the other nationalities. Fifty-two percent of Americans believed that they were creative, much higher than France at 36 percent and Japan at 19 percent. But while Americans see themselves as creative, Japan won for the most creative country. Tokyo was seen as the most creative city with NYC coming in second.

“The most disturbing data was on the state of education. … Teachers were perceived as the least-important judges for creativity, which is troubling for the future and for youth,” Lewnes said. She made specific reference to school budget cuts, with arts programs often being the first department to go.

According to the survey about two-thirds of people overall believe that being creative is valuable to the country’s economy, especially during a time of economic downturn. Even still, most felt they were more productive outside of the work environment.

“We see that as being hampered by lack of time and the environment they are in not being conducive to creativity,” Matt Norquist, the exec VP at StrategyOne, which assisted with the research said to AD Age. “We clearly haven’t quantified the value of creativity in the workplace. … Productivity and creativity shouldn’t be [contradictory]. If we can get to the point where the two are brought together, that value can be taken to the bank.”

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