PISA Rankings by Country (2000–2026 Full Analysis)

Public discussion often treats PISA rankings as if they were one fixed world table. They are not. PISA assesses 15-year-old students in science, reading, and mathematics and compares how well they can apply knowledge and skills beyond routine classroom recall. The latest released cycle is now PISA 2025, published by OECD on September 8, 2026. More than 760,000 students in 91 countries and economies participated, representing about 33 million 15-year-olds. Science was the main domain, alongside reading, mathematics, and a new assessment of computational problem solving.

What PISA Rankings Measure and What They Do Not

PISA follows students who are around 15 years old and compares how well they can use knowledge in real-world situations. The test is not designed as a simple memory exam and it does not measure every part of an education system. It focuses on three core domains: mathematics, reading, and science.

Because OECD does not combine those three areas into one official global score, the overall ranking tables on this page use an editorial method: Overall Score = Mathematics + Reading + Science divided by three. This makes country-by-country comparison easier, but the official PISA results should still be understood by subject.

PISA Cycles From 2000 to 2025

PISA 2025 Overall Ranking by Country and Economy

The table below ranks education systems with complete science, reading, and mathematics scores in PISA 2025. OECD reports each domain separately, so the overall score is an editorial average used for a single cross-domain comparison. PISA 2025 included 91 countries and economies; 90 have all three core-domain scores in the OECD snapshot table used here. Uzbekistan is included in the interactive science results with a score of 438, but no reading or mathematics mean is reported in that table, so it is not assigned an overall score below.

Data note: OECD marks Albania, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, and the United States with a caution symbol because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met. The published mean scores are retained here, while country names are shown without the symbol to keep the historical tables consistent.

What the PISA 2025 Ranking Shows

B-S-J-Z (China) and Singapore form the leading pair across the three core domains. B-S-J-Z (China) recorded the highest mean score in science at 597 and mathematics at 612. Singapore recorded the highest reading score at 535. Estonia, Japan, Korea, Macao (China), Chinese Taipei, and the United Kingdom also appeared among the top 10 education systems in all three core domains.

In the editorial three-subject average used on this page, B-S-J-Z (China) ranks first at 578.7, followed by Singapore at 552.7. Chinese Taipei, Macao (China), Japan, Korea, and Estonia follow. These combined values are useful for broad comparison, while the official OECD subject scores remain the primary measures.

Türkiye ranks 21st in this editorial overall table with an average of 476.0. Its PISA 2025 scores are 462 in mathematics, 472 in reading, and 494 in science. Science is the highest of Türkiye’s three core-domain scores in this cycle.

PISA 2025 also reports computational problem solving as a separate assessment. Macao (China) recorded the highest mean score at 572, followed by Singapore at 563, B-S-J-Z (China) at 560, and Japan at 557. This domain is not included in the editorial overall score because it is not available across earlier PISA cycles in the same way as science, reading, and mathematics.

OECD Average in PISA 2025

Across OECD countries, the 2025 averages were 482 in science, 461 in reading, and 463 in mathematics. Among the 35 OECD countries with comparable 2022 and 2025 data, science was broadly stable, while reading was about 14 points lower and mathematics about 9 points lower than in 2022. OECD reports that the 2025 averages are the lowest recorded so far across the three core domains.

Historical PISA Rankings by Year

The historical tables below use the same editorial method as the 2025 table. For each PISA cycle, the overall score is calculated as the average of mathematics, reading, and science scores. Participant lists changed between cycles, so historical positions are best compared alongside the underlying subject scores and the systems that took part in each year.

PISA Rankings Summary by Year

The table below summarizes the leading country or economy in each PISA cycle from 2000 to 2025, using the same editorial overall average method applied in the historical tables above. Since OECD does not publish one official combined PISA ranking, this summary is based on the average of mathematics, reading, and science scores.

This summary shows how the top of PISA changed over time. Finland shaped the early 2000s, Shanghai-China led the 2009 and 2012 cycles, Singapore led the editorial three-domain average in 2015 and 2022, and B-S-J-Z (China) leads the same calculation in 2025. The table is an editorial comparison, not an official OECD combined ranking.

What Changed Across PISA Rankings From 2000 to 2025

The long PISA record does not show one permanent leader. Finland shaped the early years, especially in reading and science. Korea, Japan, Hong Kong-China, Chinese Taipei, Macao, Shanghai-China, B-S-J-Z (China), and Singapore repeatedly appeared in the upper bands across different cycles. Singapore led all three core domains in 2022; in 2025, B-S-J-Z (China) recorded the highest science and mathematics means while Singapore led reading.

Among OECD countries, Estonia became one of the most important long-term stories. It combined strong science, reading, and mathematics results with a stable position near the top of the European group. Canada, Ireland, Finland, Japan, Korea, Poland, and several other systems also remained important reference points across different PISA cycles.

Why One Universal PISA Rank Does Not Exist

A clean “overall PISA ranking by country” sounds convenient, but it compresses away part of the real picture. PISA has three core subjects, not one. A system can be very strong in mathematics but less dominant in reading, or strong in science but closer to average in another subject. That is why this page uses an editorial average only as a practical comparison tool.

Small differences should also be read carefully. If two countries are separated by one or two score points, that does not necessarily mean one education system is meaningfully better than the other. Larger gaps, repeated performance across cycles, and subject-level strength are more useful than treating every exact rank as final.

Where the Picture Stands in 2026

As of September 2026, PISA 2025 is the latest released global cycle. B-S-J-Z (China) has the highest mean performance in science and mathematics, while Singapore has the highest reading mean. The OECD averages are 482 in science, 461 in reading, and 463 in mathematics. Science was the main domain of the cycle.

The 2025 release also adds a cross-country measure of computational problem solving. Macao (China), Singapore, B-S-J-Z (China), and Japan recorded the four highest mean scores in that assessment. Historical comparisons on this page continue to use the three long-running core domains so that the editorial overall score remains consistent across cycles.

Sources and Method

The subject scores in the tables are based on published PISA mathematics, reading, and science results. The overall score is calculated by averaging the three subject scores for each country or economy with complete data. This combined value is used only for comparison and is not an official OECD combined ranking. The PISA 2025 table uses the mean scores published in OECD Table I.1 and the associated performance tables.

Sources: OECD PISA 2025 Results Volume I, OECD PISA 2025 student performance tables, OECD PISA 2022 Results Volume I, OECD PISA programme information, and OECD PISA participants and cycle information.