The last unmapped places on Earth
bbc.com
bbc.com
Being from Oregon myself, and having spent years in Italy, I quickly realized that most people in Italy have no idea where I'm from - and it's not a small place by any means. Even the relatively small population is on par with some smaller European countries.
So I don't think it's that Europeans are 'more aware' - it's that they're more aware of Europe. I think it's pretty normal to be mostly aware of your immediate surroundings.
But that's still not quite fair, I think. You're kinda expected to know the neighboring countries in Europe, but you have lots of "internal" state as well. The overhead seems (arguably I'm biased) bigger. Yeah, knowing where Denmark, Italy or Norway is might be expected, but then we're comparing "them" (external state, never went there, cannot speak their language) with "us" (Germany has states as well. Would you be able to name them?).
In the end I agree with you: I think the premise is flawed.
I suspect this is fairly true for most people who live in Europe: they know their own town, region and country better than places farther away. This is fairly normal, and after explaining for about the 100th time that "Oregon is the state above California", I rapidly got over being embarassed about my compatriots' lack of geographical knowledge.