Skip Navigation
Skip Navigation

Mathematics for Grades 4 and 8: Subscale Scores

Content Subscales

Excel File Excel Download

Table 3. Average mathematics content domain scores of 4th-grade students, by education system: 2015
Education system Content domain
Number Geometric shapes and measures Data display
Average score s.e. Average score s.e. Average score s.e.

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

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

1 National Defined Population covers 90 to 95 percent of the National Target Population.

2 Met guidelines for sample participation rates only after replacement schools were included.

3 Nearly satisfied guidelines for sample participation rates after replacement schools were included.

4 The number in parentheses indicates years of school not grade in schooling.

5 National Defined Population covers less than 90 percent of the National Target Population (but at least 77 percent).

6 National Target Population does not include all of the International Target Population.

7 Reservations about reliability because the percentage of students with achievement too low for estimation exceeds 15 percent but does not exceed 25 percent.

8 Did not satisfy guidelines for sample participation rates.

NOTE: Education systems are ordered by 2015 average score in number. Education systems that are not countries are designated by the appended three-letter international abbreviation for their country. Participants that did not administer TIMSS at the target grade are not shown; see the international report for their results. U.S. state data are based on public school students only. The TIMSS scale centerpoint is set at 500 points and represents the mean of the overall achievement distribution in 1995. The TIMSS scale is the same in each administration; thus, a value of 500 in 2015 equals 500 in 1995. Standard error is abbreviated as s.e. For TIMSS 2015, Norway revised its assessed population to students in their 5th and 9th years of schooling to obtain better comparisons with Sweden and Finland. However, in previous TIMSS cycles Norway assessed students in their 4th and 8th years of schooling, which were defined as 4th and 8th grades but have been redefined as 3rd and 7th grades because year 1 in Norway is now considered the equivalent of a year of kindergarten. To maintain trend with previous TIMSS cycles, in 2015 Norway also collected data from students in their 4th and 8th years of schooling, which is used in trend tables.

SOURCE: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), 2015.

TIMSS scale centerpoint 500 lower 0.0 500 lower 0.0 500 lower 0.0
Singapore1 630 higher 4.2 607 higher 4.2 600 higher 4.1
Hong Kong-CHN2 616 higher 3.1 617 higher 3.4 611 higher 3.8
Korea, Republic of 610 higher 2.6 610 higher 2.3 607 higher 2.6
Chinese Taipei-CHN 599 higher 1.8 597 higher 3.0 591 higher 2.2
Japan 592 higher 1.9 601 higher 2.5 593 higher 2.6
Northern Ireland-GBR3 574 higher 3.1 566 higher 3.3 567 higher 3.8
Russian Federation 567 higher 3.3 557 higher 4.4 573 higher 3.6
Kazakhstan 552 4.0 540 higher 5.8 524 lower 5.3
Ireland 551 2.2 542 higher 2.9 548 3.8
England-GBR 547 3.2 542 higher 3.3 552 higher 3.2
United States1, 2 546 2.2 525 2.6 540 2.8
Belgium (Flemish)-BEL2 543 2.1 564 higher 2.3 523 lower 3.0
Norway (5)4 542 2.4 559 higher 3.5 566 higher 3.0
Portugal1 541 2.1 539 higher 2.6 546 2.8
Lithuania1 538 lower 2.6 526 3.0 540 3.6
Denmark1, 2 535 lower 2.7 555 higher 3.2 526 lower 3.5
Poland 534 lower 2.3 534 higher 2.5 538 2.8
Finland 532 lower 2.1 539 higher 2.5 542 3.3
Netherlands2 531 lower 2.2 522 1.9 539 3.4
Hungary 531 lower 3.0 536 higher 3.6 513 lower 3.6
Bulgaria 529 lower 4.6 525 5.9 504 lower 7.6
Cyprus 528 lower 2.5 524 2.8 507 lower 3.8
Czech Republic 528 lower 2.4 531 2.5 525 lower 3.0
Serbia5 524 lower 3.4 503 lower 3.8 517 lower 3.8
Germany 515 lower 2.1 531 2.5 535 2.6
Sweden1 514 lower 2.7 523 3.3 529 lower 3.9
Slovenia 511 lower 1.8 530 2.1 540 3.1
Italy1 510 lower 2.4 503 lower 2.8 498 lower 2.9
Australia 509 lower 3.1 527 3.3 533 3.6
Spain1 504 lower 2.5 503 lower 2.8 509 lower 3.1
Canada1, 2, 6 503 lower 2.4 517 lower 2.5 528 lower 2.7
Slovak Republic 502 lower 2.4 491 lower 2.6 496 lower 3.8
Croatia 498 lower 1.8 512 lower 2.3 498 lower 3.0
Turkey 489 lower 3.2 475 lower 3.0 476 lower 3.4
New Zealand 485 lower 2.7 489 lower 2.8 506 lower 2.9
France 483 lower 3.0 503 lower 3.0 476 lower 3.1
Georgia6 483 lower 3.5 429 lower 4.6 435 lower 4.4
United Arab Emirates 455 lower 2.4 442 lower 2.7 453 lower 2.4
Chile 455 lower 2.7 460 lower 3.1 463 lower 3.2
Bahrain1 453 lower 1.7 447 lower 1.9 454 lower 2.3
Qatar 446 lower 3.4 423 lower 4.4 435 lower 3.9
Iran, Islamic Republic of 435 lower 3.2 428 lower 3.5 416 lower 3.2
Oman 423 lower 2.6 430 lower 2.9 414 lower 2.6
Indonesia 399 lower 3.6 394 lower 4.2 385 lower 4.2
Jordan 388 lower 3.1 394 lower 3.1 381 lower 3.4
Saudi Arabia7 384 lower 4.1 381 lower 5.0 365 lower 4.2
Morocco 381 lower 3.3 385 lower 3.8 351 lower 4.2
Kuwait7 356 lower 4.6 338 lower 4.9 345 lower 5.4
Benchmarking participants
Florida-USA6 556 4.9 529 5.6 541 6.1
Quebec-CAN8 533 lower 4.2 542 higher 4.6 541 5.0
Dubai-UAE 514 lower 1.5 503 lower 1.9 517 lower 1.7
Ontario-CAN 500 lower 2.6 526 2.9 536 2.6
Buenos Aires-ARG 445 lower 2.9 403 lower 3.2 411 lower 3.4
Abu Dhabi-UAE1, 7 422 lower 4.7 412 lower 5.1 423 lower 4.8