What PIAAC Is

The Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) is a large-scale study conducted in the United States and other countries around the globe since 2012. PIAAC is designed to measure, analyze, and compare adults’ foundational skills of literacy, numeracy, and problem solving. The assessment focuses on the cognitive and workplace skills needed for individuals to participate in society and for economies to prosper. Data from PIAAC are meant to help countries better understand their education and training systems and the distribution of these foundational skills across the adult working-age population.

Initiated and developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), PIAAC is intended to be administered at least once a decade. PIAAC was first conducted in the United States and 23 other countries in 2012, and the same survey instruments were administered twice more through 2017. In total, 39 countries participated in the three rounds of data collection in PIAAC Cycle 1¹ (2012–2017). PIAAC Cycle 2 (2023), was conducted in 2022–2023, with 31 countries participating.

PIAAC has been administered in countries with diverse populations, cultures, education systems, and life experiences, and it is conducted in the language or languages of the country administering it. During the first cycle, about 245,000 adults were interviewed across participating countries, representing 1.15 billion people. PIAAC Cycle 1 was the first large-scale international assessment to be administered on laptop computers to respondents in their homes, with a paper-and-pencil version for those who could not take the assessment on a computer. The second cycle of PIAAC was conducted entirely on a digital tablet. The ease of use of the tablet ensured that even adults with very low familiarity with digital devices were able to complete the assessment. PIAAC is also the first adult skills assessment to be adaptive: participants taking the digital-based assessment are presented with a series of test questions (“items”) targeted to their performance level, based on their success answering earlier questions.

The two main components of PIAAC are the Background Questionnaire (BQ) and Direct Assessment. The BQ includes questions about the respondent’s demographic information, education and training, employment, and skills used at home and at work. The background portion of the survey is conducted by an interviewer, typically in the respondent’s home. A substantial share of the BQ items from PIAAC Cycle 1 were used in Cycle 2 without significant modification. Some items were revised to reflect the significant changes in adults’ engagement with the digital environment and some new sections were added for Cycle 2, which include questions regarding financial literacy in the United States.

Immediately after completing the BQ, the respondent is asked to complete the Direct Assessment (which was done using a computer or paper-and-pencil for Cycle 1 and a digital tablet for Cycle 2). The PIAAC Cycle 2 assessment was designed to allow results to be as comparable as possible with those of Cycle 1, with some updates to better reflect changes in the technological environments. In PIAAC Cycle 1, the assessment measured literacy, numeracy, and digital problem solving. It was the first adult skills assessment to measure adults' digital problem-solving skills in an online environment (e.g., email, web pages, spreadsheets). PIAAC Cycle 2 measured trends in literacy and numeracy. It also included a new domain called adaptive problem solving (APS), which measured adults’ dynamic and adaptive problem-solving strategies and replaced Cycle 1’s digital problem-solving domain. Based on the differences in what was being measured, these two domains cannot be compared.