Reading Literacy: Average Scores

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Table R1. Average scores of 15-year-old students on the PISA reading literacy scale, by education system: 2015
Education system	Average score		s.e.		Education system	Average score		s.e.
OECD average	493		0.5
Singapore	535		1.6		Hungary	470		2.7
Hong Kong (China)	527		2.7		Greece	467		4.3
Canada	527		2.3		Chile	459		2.6
Finland	526		2.5		Slovak Republic	453		2.8
Ireland	521		2.5		Malta	447		1.8
Estonia	519		2.2		Cyprus	443		1.7
Korea, Republic of	517		3.5		Uruguay	437		2.5
Japan	516		3.2		Romania	434		4.1
Norway	513		2.5		United Arab Emirates	434		2.9
New Zealand	509		2.4		Bulgaria	432		5.0
Germany	509		3.0		Turkey	428		4.0
Macau (China)	509		1.3		Costa Rica	427		2.6
Poland	506		2.5		Trinidad and Tobago	427		1.5
Slovenia	505		1.5		Montenegro, Republic of	427		1.6
Netherlands	503		2.4		Colombia	425		2.9
Australia	503		1.7		Mexico	423		2.6
Sweden	500		3.5		Moldova, Republic of	416		2.5
Denmark	500		2.5		Thailand	409		3.3
France	499		2.5		Jordan	408		2.9
Belgium	499		2.4		Brazil	407		2.8
Portugal	498		2.7		Albania	405		4.1
United Kingdom	498		2.8		Qatar	402		1.0
Chinese Taipei	497		2.5		Georgia	401		3.0
United States	497		3.4		Peru	398		2.9
Spain	496		2.4		Indonesia	397		2.9
Russian Federation	495		3.1		Tunisia	361		3.1
B-S-J-G (China)	494		5.1		Dominican Republic	358		3.1
Switzerland	492		3.0		Macedonia, Republic of	352		1.4
Latvia	488		1.8		Algeria	350		3.0
Czech Republic	487		2.6		Kosovo	347		1.6
Croatia	487		2.7		Lebanon	347		4.4
Vietnam	487		3.7
Austria	485		2.8
Italy	485		2.7
Iceland	482		2.0		U.S. states and territories
Luxembourg	481		1.4
Israel	479		3.8		Massachusetts	527		6.0
Buenos Aires (Argentina)	475		7.2		North Carolina	500		5.4
Lithuania	472		2.7		Puerto Rico	410		7.1

Average score is higher than U.S. average score at the .05 level of statistical significance. Average score is lower than U.S. average score at the .05 level of statistical significance. NOTE: Education systems are ordered by 2015 average 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. All average scores reported as higher or lower than the U.S. average score are different at the .05 level of statistical significance. 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. This table corresponds to table 2 in Performance of U.S. 15-Year-Old Students in Science, Mathematics, and Reading Literacy in an International Context (NCES 2017-048). SOURCE: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), 2015.