In 2016, some 58 education systems1 participated in the PIRLS assessment at the fourth year of formal schooling, and 16 of these systems also participated in ePIRLS.
The term "education system" refers to IEA member countries and benchmarking participants. IEA member "countries" may be complete, independent political entities or non-national entities that represent a portion of a country (e.g., England, Hong Kong, the Flemish community of Belgium). Non-national entities are indicated by italics in the tables and figures, with the three-letter international abbreviation for their country following their name. Non-national entities that are represented by their larger country in the main results (e.g., Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Ontario in Canada), or whose countries are not IEA members (Buenos Aires) are designated as "benchmarking participants." Benchmarking participants are included in a separate section in the tables and figures. For convenience, PIRLS uses the generic term "education systems" when summarizing results.
The United States has participated in each administration of PIRLS since its inception in 2001. The PIRLS participation table shows the education systems that have participated in each round of PIRLS. ePIRLS was administered for the first time in 2016.
1 This count differs from the totals in the international results because it excludes those education systems that gave the assessments to off-grade participants (e.g., to 3rd grade students). PIRLS 2016 was administered to a total of 61 education systems.