Program for International Student Assessment (PISA): 2015 Results

Science Literacy: Average Scores

Overall Content Subscales Process Subscales

Content Subscales

Table S2. Average scores of 15-year-old students on the PISA science literacy content subscales, by education system: 2015
Physical systems			Living systems			Earth and Space
Education system	Average score	*s.e.*	Education system	Average score	*s.e.*	Education system	Average score	*s.e.*
OECD average	493	0.5	OECD average	492	0.5	OECD average	494	0.5
Singapore	555	1.6	Singapore	558	1.4	Singapore	554	1.6
Japan	538	3.2	Japan	538	3.2	Japan	541	3.3
Estonia	535	2.3	Chinese Taipei	532	2.7	Estonia	539	2.3
Finland	534	2.6	Estonia	532	2.1	Finland	534	3.0
Macau (China)	533	1.4	Canada	528	2.4	Chinese Taipei	534	3.1
Chinese Taipei	531	3.0	Finland	527	2.5	Macau (China)	533	1.2
Canada	527	2.4	Macau (China)	524	1.4	Canada	529	2.5
Hong Kong (China)	523	2.9	Hong Kong (China)	523	2.7	Hong Kong (China)	523	2.5
B-S-J-G (China)	520	5.3	B-S-J-G (China)	517	4.5	Korea, Republic of	521	3.3
Korea, Republic of	517	3.6	New Zealand	512	2.8	B-S-J-G (China)	516	4.9
New Zealand	515	2.7	Slovenia	512	1.6	Slovenia	514	1.8
Slovenia	514	1.6	Korea, Republic of	511	3.2	New Zealand	513	2.7
Netherlands	511	2.6	Australia	510	1.8	Netherlands	513	2.8
Australia	511	1.8	Germany	509	2.9	Germany	512	2.9
United Kingdom	509	2.9	United Kingdom	509	2.6	United Kingdom	510	2.8
Denmark	508	2.7	Switzerland	506	3.2	Australia	509	2.1
Ireland	507	2.8	Netherlands	503	2.4	Switzerland	508	3.1
Germany	505	2.8	Belgium	503	2.4	Denmark	505	2.7
Switzerland	503	3.1	Portugal	503	2.5	Belgium	503	2.6
Poland	503	2.7	Poland	501	2.8	Ireland	502	2.6
Norway	503	2.5	Ireland	500	2.5	Poland	501	2.8
Sweden	500	3.8	United States	498	*3.4*	Portugal	500	2.9
Belgium	499	2.4	Denmark	496	2.6	Norway	499	2.6
Portugal	499	2.7	France	496	2.3	Austria	497	2.9
Austria	497	2.7	Norway	494	2.5	Spain	496	2.3
United States	494	*3.5*	Spain	493	2.3	United States	496	*3.4*
France	492	2.4	Czech Republic	493	2.4	France	496	2.5
Czech Republic	492	2.5	Austria	492	2.6	Sweden	495	4.1
Latvia	490	1.7	Latvia	489	1.7	Czech Republic	493	2.6
Russian Federation	488	3.4	Sweden	488	3.7	Latvia	493	1.9
Spain	487	2.3	Luxembourg	485	1.2	Russian Federation	489	3.3
Hungary	481	2.9	Russian Federation	483	2.8	Italy	485	2.7
Italy	479	2.8	Italy	479	2.7	Luxembourg	483	1.6
Luxembourg	478	1.4	Croatia	476	2.6	Croatia	477	2.7
Lithuania	478	2.8	Iceland	476	2.0	Hungary	477	2.8
Iceland	472	1.9	Lithuania	476	2.7	Lithuania	471	3.0
Croatia	472	2.6	Hungary	473	2.6	Iceland	469	1.9
Israel	469	3.8	Israel	469	3.5	Slovak Republic	458	2.8
Slovak Republic	466	2.9	Slovak Republic	458	2.8	Israel	457	3.8
Greece	452	4.0	Greece	456	4.0	Greece	453	4.3
Bulgaria	445	4.4	Chile	452	2.7	Bulgaria	448	4.8
Chile	439	3.0	Bulgaria	443	4.5	Chile	446	2.5
United Arab Emirates	434	2.8	Uruguay	438	2.5	United Arab Emirates	435	2.8
Cyprus	433	1.6	United Arab Emirates	438	2.6	Uruguay	434	2.6
Uruguay	432	2.6	Cyprus	433	1.5	Cyprus	430	1.6
Turkey	429	4.3	Turkey	424	3.9	Turkey	421	4.3
Thailand	423	3.2	Qatar	423	1.1	Mexico	419	2.4
Costa Rica	417	2.4	Thailand	422	3.2	Costa Rica	418	2.4
Qatar	415	1.5	Costa Rica	420	2.4	Thailand	416	3.2
Colombia	414	2.7	Colombia	419	2.5	Colombia	411	2.7
Mexico	411	2.2	Mexico	415	2.4	Montenegro, Republic of	410	2.0
Montenegro, Republic of	407	1.6	Montenegro, Republic of	413	1.3	Qatar	409	1.2
Brazil	396	2.6	Brazil	404	2.6	Brazil	395	3.1
Peru	389	2.7	Peru	402	2.7	Peru	393	3.1
Tunisia	379	2.4	Tunisia	390	2.4	Tunisia	387	3.4
Dominican Republic	332	3.0	Dominican Republic	332	2.8	Dominican Republic	324	3.4
Buenos Aires (Argentina)	—	†	Buenos Aires (Argentina)	—	†	Buenos Aires (Argentina)	—	†
Romania	—	†	Romania	—	†	Romania	—	†
Jordan	—	†	Jordan	—	†	Jordan	—	†
Vietnam	—	†	Vietnam	—	†	Vietnam	—	†
Georgia	—	†	Georgia	—	†	Georgia	—	†
Albania	—	†	Albania	—	†	Albania	—	†
Trinidad and Tobago	—	†	Trinidad and Tobago	—	†	Trinidad and Tobago	—	†
Macedonia, Republic of	—	†	Macedonia, Republic of	—	†	Macedonia, Republic of	—	†
Algeria	—	†	Algeria	—	†	Algeria	—	†
Indonesia	—	†	Indonesia	—	†	Indonesia	—	†
Malta	—	†	Malta	—	†	Malta	—	†
Lebanon	—	†	Lebanon	—	†	Lebanon	—	†
Kosovo	—	†	Kosovo	—	†	Kosovo	—	†
Moldova, Republic of	—	†	Moldova, Republic of	—	†	Moldova, Republic of	—	†

U.S. states and territories			U.S. states and territories			U.S. states and territories
Massachusetts	526	6.7	Massachusetts	533	6.9	Massachusetts	528	6.6
North Carolina	501	5.2	North Carolina	503	5.4	North Carolina	502	5.0
Puerto Rico	—	†	Puerto Rico	—	†	Puerto Rico	—	†

Average score is higher than U.S. average score at the .05 level of statistical significance.

Average score is higher than U.S. score at the .05 level of statistical significance.

Average score is lower than U.S. average score at the .05 level of statistical significance.

Average score is lower than U.S. score at the .05 level of statistical significance.
― Not available.
† Not applicable.
NOTE: Education systems are ordered by 2015 average subscale score. The OECD average is the average of the national averages of the OECD member countries, with each country weighted equally. Scores are reported on a scale from 0 to 1,000. Albania, Algeria , Buenos Aires (Argentina), Georgia, Indonesia, Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Malta, Republic of Macedonia, Republic of Moldova, Puerto Rico, Romania, Trinidad and Tobago, and Vietnam administered paper-based trend items and have no scores for science subscales. Standard error is noted by s.e. Italics indicate non-OECD countries and education systems. B-S-J-G (China) refers to the four PISA participating China provinces: Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Guangdong. Results for Massachusetts and North Carolina are for public school students only. Although Argentina, Malaysia, and Kazakhstan participated in PISA 2015, technical problems with their samples prevent results from being discussed in this report.
SOURCE: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), 2015.