Student performance in mathematics and reading across Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries has fallen to the lowest average level recorded by the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the latest results show.
The PISA 2025 results, published on 8 September 2026, point to a prolonged weakening in the two subjects. Average reading scores across OECD countries declined by 28 points between 2015 and 2025, equivalent to about one and a half years of learning. Mathematics scores fell by 22 points over the same period, equivalent to just over one year of learning.
PISA is a triennial international survey of the academic performance of 15-year-old students in participating countries and economies. The 2025 cycle was its largest on record, surveying 760,000 students across 91 countries and economies.
Across the OECD, one in five 15-year-old students is now a low performer in science, mathematics and reading. That proportion stood at 16% in 2022. The results place renewed pressure on education ministers and international bodies confronting declines that have persisted since 2015.
The deterioration was also recorded among PISA participants outside the OECD. Their average reading scores fell by 16 points between 2015 and 2025, while mathematics scores declined by eight points.
Science offered a more stable picture in the most recent cycle. Average science performance across OECD countries was unchanged between 2022 and 2025, following a downward trend from 2009 to 2022. Eleven countries and economies improved their science performance between 2015 and 2025: Lithuania, the Slovak Republic, Türkiye, the Dominican Republic, Georgia, Macao (China), Montenegro, Qatar, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay.
The assessment also found a large divide linked to students’ socio-economic circumstances. Advantaged students across OECD countries scored 85 points higher in science than disadvantaged students. The gap narrowed between 2022 and 2025 because advantaged students’ performance fell, while the results did not show corresponding improvements among disadvantaged students.
Classroom technology was associated with weaker outcomes in several measures. More than one in four students reported that classmates were distracted by digital devices in most or every science lesson. Students who said they had not used artificial intelligence, or AI, to draft text for writing assignments outperformed those who said they had used it.
The findings also suggest that digital skills do not necessarily coincide with stronger performance across traditional academic subjects. Across OECD countries, almost two-thirds of students reached the relevant proficiency level in computational problem solving. Only half reached that level while also demonstrating basic proficiency in science, reading and mathematics.
The PISA results do not establish the causes of the declines in reading and mathematics. They do, however, show that the fall has continued across a decade and that a substantial share of students is struggling in all three assessed core subjects. The stabilisation in science between 2022 and 2025, alongside gains in several participating countries and economies, provides a contrasting result within an assessment otherwise marked by lower average performance.
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