Average scores of 15-year-old students on the reading literacy scale and reading literacy subscales in PISA, by country: 2009

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Table B.1.43.

Average scores of 15-year-old students on the reading literacy scale and reading literacy subscales in PISA, by country: 2009

Reading literacy scale			Reading literacy subscales
Reading literacy scale			Access and retrieve			Integrate and interpret			Reflect and evaluate
Country	Score	s.e.	Country	Score	s.e.	Country	Score	s.e.	Country	Score	s.e.
OECD average	493	0.5	OECD average	495	0.5	OECD average	493	0.5	OECD average	494	0.5

*OECD countries*			*OECD countries*			*OECD countries*			*OECD countries*
Korea, Republic of	539	3.5	Korea, Republic of	542	3.6	Korea, Republic of	541	3.4	Korea, Republic of	542	3.9
Finland	536	2.3	Finland	532	2.7	Finland	538	2.3	Finland	536	2.2
Canada	524	1.5	Japan	530	3.8	Canada	522	1.5	Canada	535	1.6
New Zealand	521	2.4	New Zealand	521	2.4	Japan	520	3.5	New Zealand	531	2.5
Japan	520	3.5	Netherlands	519	5.1	New Zealand	517	2.4	Australia	523	2.5
Australia	515	2.3	Canada	517	1.5	Australia	513	2.4	Japan	521	3.9
Netherlands	508	5.1	Belgium	513	2.4	Netherlands	504	5.4	United States	512	*4.0*
Belgium	506	2.3	Australia	513	2.4	Belgium	504	2.5	Netherlands	510	5.0
Norway	503	2.6	Norway	512	2.8	Poland	503	2.8	Belgium	505	2.5
Estonia	501	2.6	Iceland	507	1.6	Iceland	503	1.5	Norway	505	2.7
Switzerland	501	2.4	Switzerland	505	2.7	Norway	502	2.7	United Kingdom	503	2.4
Poland	500	2.6	Sweden	505	2.9	Switzerland	502	2.5	Estonia	503	2.6
Iceland	500	1.4	Estonia	503	3.0	Germany	501	2.8	Ireland	502	3.1
United States	500	*3.7*	Denmark	502	2.6	Estonia	500	2.8	Sweden	502	3.0
Sweden	497	2.9	Hungary	501	3.7	France	497	3.6	Poland	498	2.8
Germany	497	2.7	Germany	501	3.5	Hungary	496	3.2	Switzerland	497	2.7
Ireland	496	3.0	Poland	500	2.8	United States	495	*3.7*	Portugal	496	3.3
France	496	3.4	Ireland	498	3.3	Sweden	494	3.0	Iceland	496	1.4
Denmark	495	2.1	United States	492	*3.6*	Ireland	494	3.0	France	495	3.4
United Kingdom	494	2.3	France	492	3.8	Denmark	492	2.1	Denmark	493	2.6
Hungary	494	3.2	United Kingdom	491	2.5	United Kingdom	491	2.4	Germany	491	2.8
Portugal	489	3.1	Slovak Republic	491	3.0	Italy	490	1.6	Greece	489	4.9
Italy	486	1.6	Slovenia	489	1.1	Slovenia	489	1.1	Hungary	489	3.3
Slovenia	483	1.0	Portugal	488	3.3	Czech Republic	488	2.9	Spain	483	2.2
Greece	483	4.3	Italy	482	1.8	Portugal	487	3.0	Israel	483	4.0
Spain	481	2.0	Spain	480	2.1	Greece	484	4.0	Italy	482	1.8
Czech Republic	478	2.9	Czech Republic	479	3.2	Slovak Republic	481	2.5	Turkey	473	4.0
Slovak Republic	477	2.5	Austria	477	3.2	Spain	481	2.0	Luxembourg	471	1.1
Israel	474	3.6	Luxembourg	471	1.3	Luxembourg	475	1.1	Slovenia	470	1.2
Luxembourg	472	1.3	Greece	468	4.4	Israel	473	3.4	Slovak Republic	466	2.9
Austria	470	2.9	Turkey	467	4.1	Austria	471	2.9	Austria	463	3.4
Turkey	464	3.5	Israel	463	4.1	Turkey	459	3.3	Czech Republic	462	3.1
Chile	449	3.1	Chile	444	3.4	Chile	452	3.1	Chile	452	3.2
Mexico	425	2.0	Mexico	433	2.1	Mexico	418	2.0	Mexico	432	1.9

*Non-OECD countries*			*Non-OECD countries*			*Non-OECD countries*			*Non-OECD countries*
Shanghai-China	556	2.4	Shanghai-China	549	2.9	Shanghai-China	558	2.5	Shanghai-China	557	2.4
Hong Kong-China	533	2.1	Hong Kong-China	530	2.7	Hong Kong-China	530	2.2	Hong Kong-China	540	2.5
Singapore	526	1.1	Singapore	526	1.4	Singapore	525	1.2	Singapore	529	1.1
Liechtenstein	499	2.8	Liechtenstein	508	4.0	Chinese Taipei	499	2.5	Liechtenstein	498	3.2
Chinese Taipei	495	2.6	Chinese Taipei	496	2.8	Liechtenstein	498	4.0	Chinese Taipei	493	2.8
Macao-China	487	0.9	Macao-China	493	1.2	Macao-China	488	0.8	Latvia	492	3.0
Latvia	484	3.0	Croatia	492	3.1	Latvia	484	2.8	Macao-China	481	0.8
Croatia	476	2.9	Lithuania	476	3.0	Croatia	472	2.9	Croatia	471	3.5
Lithuania	468	2.4	Latvia	476	3.6	Lithuania	469	2.4	Dubai-UAE	466	1.1
Dubai-UAE	459	1.1	Russian Federation	469	3.9	Russian Federation	467	3.1	Lithuania	463	2.5
Russian Federation	459	3.3	Dubai-UAE	458	1.4	Dubai-UAE	457	1.3	Russian Federation	441	3.7
Serbia, Republic of	442	2.4	Serbia, Republic of	449	3.1	Serbia, Republic of	445	2.4	Uruguay	436	2.9
Bulgaria	429	6.7	Thailand	431	3.5	Bulgaria	436	6.4	Serbia, Republic of	430	2.6
Uruguay	426	2.6	Bulgaria	430	8.3	Romania	425	4.0	Tunisia	427	3.0
Romania	424	4.1	Uruguay	424	2.9	Uruguay	423	2.6	Romania	426	4.5
Thailand	421	2.6	Romania	423	4.7	Montenegro, Republic of	420	1.6	Brazil	424	2.7
Trinidad and Tobago	416	1.2	Trinidad and Tobago	413	1.6	Trinidad and Tobago	419	1.4	Colombia	422	4.2
Colombia	413	3.7	Montenegro, Republic of	408	2.3	Thailand	416	2.6	Thailand	420	2.8
Brazil	412	2.7	Brazil	407	3.3	Colombia	411	3.8	Bulgaria	417	7.1
Montenegro, Republic of	408	1.7	Colombia	404	3.7	Jordan	410	3.1	Trinidad and Tobago	413	1.3
Jordan	405	3.3	Indonesia	399	4.7	Brazil	406	2.7	Indonesia	409	3.8
Tunisia	404	2.9	Kazakhstan	397	3.7	Argentina	398	4.7	Jordan	407	3.4
Indonesia	402	3.7	Argentina	394	4.8	Indonesia	397	3.5	Argentina	402	4.8
Argentina	398	4.6	Jordan	394	4.0	Kazakhstan	397	3.0	Montenegro, Republic of	383	1.9
Kazakhstan	390	3.1	Tunisia	393	3.3	Tunisia	393	2.7	Panama	377	6.3
Albania	385	4.0	Albania	380	4.7	Albania	393	3.8	Albania	376	4.6
Qatar	372	0.8	Peru	364	4.3	Qatar	379	0.9	Qatar	376	1.0
Panama	371	6.5	Panama	363	7.7	Azerbaijan	373	2.9	Kazakhstan	373	3.4
Peru	370	4.0	Azerbaijan	361	4.5	Panama	372	5.9	Peru	368	4.2
Azerbaijan	362	3.3	Qatar	354	1.0	Peru	371	4.0	Azerbaijan	335	3.8
Kyrgyz Republic	314	3.2	Kyrgyz Republic	299	4.0	Kyrgyz Republic	327	2.9	Kyrgyz Republic	300	4.0

Average is higher than the U.S. average

Average is not measurably different from the U.S. average

Average is lower than the U.S. average

NOTE: The access-and-retrieve subscale involves finding, selecting, and collecting information. The integrate-and-interpret subscale involves processing what is read to make internal sense of a text. The reflect-and-evaluate subscale involves drawing on knowledge, ideas, or values external to the text. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average is the average of the national averages of the OECD member countries, with each country weighted equally. Because the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is principally an OECD study, the results for non-OECD countries are displayed separately from those of the OECD countries and are not included in the OECD average. Countries are ordered on the basis of average scores, from highest to lowest within the OECD countries and non-OECD countries. Scores are reported on a scale from 0 to 1,000. Score differences as noted between the United States and other countries (as well as between the United States and the OECD average) are significantly different at the .05 level of statistical significance. Standard error is noted by s.e. In the country column, italics indicate non-national entities. UAE refers to United Arab Emirates.

SOURCE: Fleischman, H.L., Hopstock, P. J., Pelczar, M.P, and Shelly, B.E. (2010). Highlights From PISA 2009: Performance of U.S. 15-Year-Old Students in Reading, Mathematics, and Science Literacy in an International Context (NCES 2011-004), supplemental table R1. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.