Participating Countries

Education system	2001	2006	2011	2016		2021
Education system	PIRLS	PIRLS	PIRLS	PIRLS	ePIRLS	Digital	Paper
Albania							●
Argentina	●
Australia¹			●	●			●
Austria		●	●	●			●
Azerbaijan			●	●			●
Bahrain²				●			●
Belgium (Flemish)-BEL		●		●		●
Belgium (French)-BEL		●	●	●			●
Belize	●
Botswana³			●
Brazil¹							●
Bulgaria	●	●	●	●			●
Canada			●	●	●
Chile				●
Chinese Taipei		●	●	●	●	●
Colombia	●		●
Croatia²			●			●
Cyprus	●						●
Czech Republic	●		●	●		●
Denmark⁴		●	●	●	●	●
Egypt				●			●
England-GBR¹	●	●	●	●			●
Finland			●	●		●
France	●	●	●	●			●
Georgia²		●	●	●	●		●
Germany	●	●	●	●		●
Greece	●
Honduras³			●
Hong Kong-CHN	●	●	●	●			●
Hungary²	●	●	●	●		●
Iceland⁵	●	●
Indonesia		●	●
Iran, Islamic Republic of¹	●	●	●	●			●
Ireland²			●	●	●		●
Israel^1,6	●	●	●	●	●	●
Italy	●	●	●	●	●	●
Jordan							●
Kazakhstan²				●		●
Kosovo							●
Kuwait³	●	●	●	●
Latvia²	●	●		●			●
Lithuania²	●	●	●	●		●
Luxembourg		●
Macao-CHN				●			●
Malta			●	●		●
Moldova, Republic of	●	●
Montenegro							●
Morocco^2,7	●	●	●	●			●
Netherlands	●	●	●	●			●
New Zealand	●	●	●	●		●
North Macedonia	●	●					●
Northern Ireland-GBR²			●	●			●
Norway^5,8	●	●	●	●	●	●
Oman			●	●			●
Poland		●	●	●			●
Portugal			●	●	●	●
Qatar^2,6		●	●	●		●
Romania	●	●	●
Russian Federation	●	●	●	●		●
Saudi Arabia²			●	●		●
Scotland-GBR	●	●
Serbia							●
Singapore	●	●	●	●	●	●
Slovak Republic	●	●	●	●		●
Slovenia	●	●	●	●	●	●
South Africa¹		●					●
Spain		●	●	●		●
Sweden⁹	●	●	●	●	●	●
Trinidad and Tobago		●	●	●
Turkey	●						●
United Arab Emirates²			●	●	●	●
United States^2,11	●	●	●	●	●	●
Uzbekistan							●
Total	34	40	48	49	14	26	31

U.S. benchmarking states
Florida-USA			●
Total	0	0	1	0	0	0	0

Other benchmarking participants
Abu Dhabi-UAE²			●	●	●	●
Alberta-CAN		●	●			●
Andalusia-ESP			●	●
British Columbia-CAN		●				●
Buenos Aires-ARG				●
Dubai-UAE²			●	●	●	●
Eng/Afr/Zulu-ZAF¹⁰			●	●
Madrid-ESP				●
Maltese-MLT			●
Moscow City-RUS				●		●
Newfoundland & Labrador-CAN						●
Nova Scotia-CAN		●
Ontario-CAN	●	●	●	●			○
Quebec-CAN²	●	●	●	●		●
South Africa (6)¹²							●
Total	2	5	8	9	2	7	2

● = Indicates participation in particular assessment with results reported.

○ = Indicates participation in particular assessment, but results either not reported or reported separately.

¹ Administered PIRLS 2021 one year after the original assessment window to 4th-grade students at the end of the 2021–22 school year.

² Administered PIRLS 2021 six months after the original assessment window to 5th-grade students at the beginning of the 2021–22 school year.

³ Administered the PIRLS 4th-grade assessment to 6th-grade students in 2011.

⁴ Administered the PIRLS 4th-grade assessment to both 3rd-grade and 4th-grade students in 2016.

⁵ Administered the PIRLS 4th-grade assessment to both 4th-grade students and 5th-grade students in 2006.

⁶ Participated in 2001 and/or 2006 but data not comparable for measuring trends to 2011, primarily due to countries improving translations or increasing population coverage.

⁷ Administered the PIRLS 4th-grade assessment to both 4th-grade students and 6th-grade students in 2011.

⁸ Starting in PIRLS 2016, Norway chose to assess students in the 5th year of schooling, so students would be compared with similar age students in Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. To maintain trend with previous PIRLS cycles, in 2016 Norway also collected data from students in their 4th year of schooling. The ePIRLS assessment in 2016 was administered only to students in their 5th year of schooling.

⁹ Administered the PIRLS 4th-grade assessment to 3rd-grade students and 4th-grade students in 2001.

¹⁰ South Africa (ZAF) tested 5th-grade students receiving instruction in English (ENG) or Afrikaans (AFR) in 2011 and in English, Afrikaans, or Zulu in 2016.

¹¹ The United States administered the PIRLS 2021 assessment digitally, but reported results of its paper-bridge assessment. For more details, please see the PIRLS Frequently Asked Questions.

¹² Administered PIRLS 2021 one year after the original assessment window to 6th-grade students at the end of the 2021–22 school year.

NOTE: OECD member countries are shown in bold. Subnational education systems are italicized.

SOURCE: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS).