Posted on 12/28/2025 9:20:51 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Every three years, the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) evaluates how well 15-year-olds can apply reading skills to real-world situations.
This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti, ranks the top-performing countries based on their average reading scores.
The data for this visualization comes from the OECD’s PISA 2022 results.
PISA measures reading proficiency in a student’s native or primary language of instruction, focusing on comprehension, interpretation, and evaluation of written texts. Top-performing systems typically score in the 550–560 range, while the OECD average is 476.
Singapore ranks first globally with an average reading score of 543, placing it comfortably ahead of all other countries. The city-state’s education system emphasizes structured literacy, teacher quality, and early intervention for struggling students. The country also leads the world in math performance.
Japan and Ireland follow at a distant second and third, both scoring 516.
| Rank | Country | Average PISA Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇸🇬 Singapore | 543 |
| 2 | 🇯🇵 Japan | 516 |
| 3 | 🇮🇪 Ireland | 516 |
| 4 | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | 515 |
| 5 | 🇰🇷 Korea | 515 |
| 6 | 🇪🇪 Estonia | 511 |
| 7 | 🇲🇴 Macao | 510 |
| 8 | 🇨🇦 Canada | 507 |
| 9 | 🇺🇸 United States | 504 |
| 10 | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | 501 |
| 11 | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong | 500 |
| 12 | 🇦🇺 Australia | 498 |
| 13 | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 494 |
| 14 | 🇫🇮 Finland | 490 |
| 15 | 🇵🇱 Poland | 489 |
| 16 | 🇨🇿 Czech Republic | 489 |
| 17 | 🇩🇰 Denmark | 489 |
| 18 | 🇸🇪 Sweden | 487 |
| 19 | 🇨🇭 Switzerland | 483 |
| 20 | 🇮🇹 Italy | 482 |
| 21 | 🇩🇪 Germany | 480 |
| 22 | 🇦🇹 Austria | 480 |
| 23 | 🇧🇪 Belgium | 479 |
| 24 | 🇵🇹 Portugal | 477 |
| 25 | 🇳🇴 Norway | 477 |
| — | 🌍 OECD average | 476 |
| 26 | 🇱🇻 Latvia | 475 |
| 27 | 🇭🇷 Croatia | 475 |
| 28 | 🇫🇷 France | 474 |
| 29 | 🇪🇸 Spain | 474 |
| 30 | 🇮🇱 Israel | 474 |
East Asian economies dominate the top of the ranking, with Taiwan, Korea, Macao, Hong Kong, and Japan all placing in the top 11. These systems often stress rigorous curricula, strong parental involvement, and consistent national standards.
Northern European countries such as Estonia and Finland also perform well, reflecting long-standing investments in equitable education and student well-being. Estonia’s score of 511 places it among the global elite despite its relatively small population.
Several English-speaking countries also appear in the upper half of the ranking, including Canada, the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
Canada leads this group with a score of 507.
Notably, many large European economies, including Germany, France, Spain, and Italy, cluster around or just above the OECD average.
If you enjoyed today’s post, check out The World’s Wealthiest Nations in 2025 on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.
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Jim
The U.S. ranking doesn’t jive with previous reports of students reading well below grade level.
Jibe.
I am amazed the USA is that high on the list.
Voice to text. Proof read at a glance. Oops!
Railroad?
“I am amazed the USA is that high on the list.”
Considering that we don’t start reading instruction before 4th grade*, either all those countries below us suck even more, or the report is more a political piece.
*sorry parents, “sight words” is NOT reading.
Phonics is used in parts of the US.
I guess this would normally suggest that we not believe everything that we read. This statement is mainly for those who graduated many years ago & actually DID learn to read quite well. That doesn’t mean that we understand all the gobbledegook that we read nowadays, tho.
Has more to do with reading retention & comprehension
than just the ability to read. Next would be nice for
common sense leading to critical thinking classes so as
to root out lies, propaganda and cognitive dissonance ~
where 2 things are thought of as factual yet directly
in contradiction with each other.
“Phonics is used in parts of the US.”
Pacific Ocean
I hope you see the limitation of phonics. The letter “c” in Pacific Ocean has to be pronounced three different ways.
Phonics is a useful tool to connect what young children have heard with what they have read. It is also helpful to learn to pronounce words not currently in a child’s vocabulary.
In Arabic, the short vowels are not normally written. An Arab child has to learn letter patterns and possible words that go with each pattern.
In Russian, letter patterns initially ignoring prefixes are sought out.
This is awful! We must ban this immediately, lest they be able to read!
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