Posted on 09/24/2026 7:40:12 PM PDT by 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.
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.
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.
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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Math is a universal unspoken language. It is a crime what has happened to math studies in US schools.
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?
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
China is a fraud because it only includes a few select areas and not the whole country.
Didn’t see India on that list. They seem to do well on spelling bees.
Hey, at least we finally beat Vietnam right?
Well we certainly know why Canada is so high on the list.
Vancouver is practically a CCP colony.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Indians have to speak English to understand each other, since there are 1,000 different languages in India.
I have been to India and have worked with too many Indians in my professional life. Here’s what I’ve learned:
Hindi is the most widely spoken language in India, used as a first language by about 44% of the population and as a second or third language by another 57%. It is the official language of the Union (central government) and is widely used in inter‑regional communication, especially in the Hindi‑belt states of northern India
English OTOH, is the other official language of India, used alongside Hindi in government, law, education, business, and media. It serves as a lingua franca in many contexts, especially in urban areas, higher education, and inter‑state business.
Within the Hindi belt (states like Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh), over 97% of people can speak Hindi, so communication is highly likely.
But, but but... Outside the Hindi belt, such as in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, or West Bengal, there is no single dominant language, so the chance of two people from different states understanding each other is much lower .
Multilingualism is common but limited: only about 20% of Indians are bilingual, and just 7% know three or more languages.
It’s the most populous country in the world and all efforts at teaching a unified language still leaves a lot to be desired. In this sense, China has done a much better job of unifying their country with one language — MANDARIN.
Because of this, I suspect that the math test scores of India ON AVERAGE will be at the lower end of the curve.
Intuitive math Geniuses like Ramanujan come very rarely.
That’s because India is a federation of nations rather than a single nation.
The differences in language, race, history even religion (as Hinduism is an umbrella for many different religions) between say someone from Madras versus someone from Gujarat are more than the differences between a Swede and someone from Portugal
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