Ranked: The World’s Best Countries at Math in 2026

Visual Capitalist ^ | 09/23/2026 | Bruno Venditti

[SeekAndFind]

How do math skills compare around the world?

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti, ranks participating countries and economies by the average mathematics scores of 15-year-old students in the most recent PISA 2025 study, published in September 2026.

PISA assesses students in mathematics, reading, and science. Its mathematics assessment goes beyond memorizing formulas or procedures, measuring whether students can apply mathematical knowledge and reasoning to real-world problems.

More than 760,000 students took part in PISA 2025 across 91 countries and economies, representing roughly 33 million 15-year-olds worldwide.

China in this ranking represents the participating jurisdictions of Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang. Uzbekistan is excluded because a comparable mathematics score was not reported.

Why East Asia Stands Out in Math Scores

China leads Singapore by 49 points, while Macao and Taiwan rank third and fourth with scores of 549 and 546, respectively.

Rank	Country	Average PISA score
1	🇨🇳 China	612
2	🇸🇬 Singapore	563
3	🇲🇴 Macao	549
4	🇹🇼 Taiwan	546
5	🇯🇵 Japan	525
6	🇰🇷 Korea	522
6	🇭🇰 Hong Kong	522
8	🇪🇪 Estonia	508
9	🇨🇭 Switzerland	499
10	🇬🇧 UK	488
11	🇨🇦 Canada	485
12	🇵🇱 Poland	484
13	🇳🇱 Netherlands	483
14	🇳🇿 New Zealand	480
14	🇮🇪 Ireland	480
14	🇧🇪 Belgium	480
17	🇦🇺 Australia	478
18	🇦🇹 Austria	477
18	🇨🇿 Czechia	477
20	🇩🇰 Denmark	471
21	🇱🇹 Lithuania	470
22	🇫🇮 Finland	469
22	🇸🇰 Slovakia	469
24	🇮🇹 Italy	468
25	🇩🇪 Germany	464
25	🇸🇪 Sweden	464
27	OECD average	463
27	🇺🇸 United States	463
28	🇹🇷 Türkiye	462
29	🇸🇮 Slovenia	460
29	🇵🇹 Portugal	460
29	🇱🇻 Latvia	460
32	🇭🇺 Hungary	459
33	🇫🇷 France	458
33	🇱🇺 Luxembourg	458
35	🇪🇸 Spain	457
36	🇭🇷 Croatia	455
37	🇦🇪 UAE	453
38	🇳🇴 Norway	452
39	🇮🇸 Iceland	450
40	🇻🇳 Vietnam	443

Japan ranks fifth with 525 points, while Korea and Hong Kong are tied at 522. Estonia breaks up the concentration of East Asian education systems at the top, ranking eighth globally with a score of 508 and placing highest among European countries.

Where the U.S. and Canada Rank

The United States ranks 27th with a score of 463, exactly matching the OECD average.

Canada ranks 11th overall with an average mathematics score of 485, putting it 22 points above the OECD average. It also places ahead of several major European economies, including Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.

The United Kingdom ranks 10th with a score of 488. Australia comes in 17th at 478, while New Zealand ties for 14th at 480.

Math Scores Have Fallen Across the OECD

Across OECD countries, average mathematics scores fell by 22 points between 2015 and 2025, equivalent to just over one year of learning. Declines were also recorded among non-OECD participants.

PISA also found an association between heavy digital leisure use and student outcomes. Students spending more than four hours a day on digital leisure activities outside school tended to have lower mathematics scores and a weaker sense of belonging.

By contrast, moderate digital use was associated with better outcomes on both measures than either no use or very high use.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Countries by Education Spending as % of GDP on Voronoi.

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TOPICS: Education; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: math; pisa; rankings

[pfflier]

Math is a universal unspoken language. It is a crime what has happened to math studies in US schools.

[DIRTYSECRET]

Japan is right up there.

“The level in the United States is lower because of a considerable number of blacks, Mexicans, and Puerto Ricans.”
-Yasuhiro Nakasone

So what’s the big deal?

[dfwgator]

Not too bright, folks, not too f_____ bright. But if you talk to one of them about this, if you isolate one of them, you sit him down, rationally, you talk to him about the low IQ’s and the dumb behavior and the bad decisions, right away they start talking about education. That’s the big answer to everything. Education. They say we need more money for education, we need more books, more teachers, more classrooms, more schools, we need more testing for the kids.

You say to one of them: well, you know, we’ve tried all of that and the kids still can’t pass the tests. Ah don’t you worry about that, we’re going to lower the passing grades . And that’s what they do in a lot of these schools, they lower the passing grades, so more kids can pass. More kids pass, the school looks good, everybody is happy, the IQ of the country slips another two or three points and pretty soon all you need to get into college is a f______ pencil.

Got a pencil, get the f___ in there, it’s physics. Then everyone wonders why 17 other countries graduate more scientists than we do. Education! Politicians know that word.

They use it on you. Politicians have traditionally hidden behind three things: the Flag, the Bible and Children. No child left behind! No child left behind! Oh really?

It wasn’t long ago that you were talking about giving kids a head start. Head start? Left behind? Someone’s losing f______ ground here.

-George Carlin

[qam1]

China is a fraud because it only includes a few select areas and not the whole country.

[Mr. N. Wolfe]

Didn’t see India on that list. They seem to do well on spelling bees.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Dats raciss.

[Bullish]

Hey, at least we finally beat Vietnam right?

[dfwgator]

Well we certainly know why Canada is so high on the list.

Vancouver is practically a CCP colony.

[BobL]

MEANINGLESS - What REALLY counts is that our schools are FREE and therefore us parents have the freed-up money to buy that beautiful house, the F150, and that BOAT, oooh, that boat.

[qam1]

“The level in the United States is lower because of a considerable number of blacks, Mexicans, and Puerto Ricans.”

Yes, the results from 2022 of the same assessment with the United States races separated out. I am sure it's the same this year.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: “The level in the United States is lower because of a considerable number of blacks, Mexicans, and Puerto Ricans.”

Nakasone said that in the 1980’s.

That statement is like the film Blazing Saddles when Mel Brooks made it. IT CAN’T BE SAID (MADE) TODAY FOR FEAR OF BEING CALLED THE “R” WORD.

I suspect a lot of European countries with lower scores have the same issue as observed by Nakasone.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Didn’t see India on that list. They seem to do well on spelling bees.

I suspect the score will be low.

The Indians that you see in the USA ( those whose incomes are highest on average and whose kids regularly top the Spelling Bees) are the CREAM OF THE CROP.

With 1.4 billion people, the AVERAGE test scores will definitely be PULLED DOWN by those in the lower rung of society unfortunately.

Heck, many people think that Indians speak English well. NOT SO. Approximately only 10-12% of India’s population speaks English fluently or semi-fluently, with broader comprehension reaching up to 26%. That’s still a large number — about 150 million people.

[dfwgator]

Indians have to speak English to understand each other, since there are 1,000 different languages in India.