OECD Education Rankings – 2013 Update

Countries which belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) produce two-thirds of the world’s goods and services. The organization publishes reports on economic and social factors in the member states. School performance league tables are presented in the OECD report, Education at a Glance. It includes comparison tables of educational performance, class sizes, teachers’ salaries, tertiary education and more.
The report can be downloaded as a PDF document.

► See the top performers in reading, mathematics and science  (on this page).

Chart A2·1 [ page 42] ranks countries, in descending order, according to the percentage of adults who have completed an upper secondary education (the most recent data in the 2013 report is from 2011).

 

Chart A1·2 footnotes:

1. Year of reference 2010.
2. Some programmes not included.
* China has a large rural / urban disparity in its education system.

PISA 2009 survey results 

The OECD conducts an international comparison of educational performance every three years. The results for the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment were published in December 2010. For more information see: http://www.pisa.oecd.org/

The chart below shows the top performing countries in reading, mathematics and science, in rank order. The figures are drawn from the Executive Summary of the PISA secondary education test results:

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/34/60/46619703.pdf

2009  Programme for International Student Assessment — test scores
#	Reading – Overall		Mathematics		Science
1	China: Shanghai	556	China: Shanghai	600	China: Shanghai	575
2	Korea	539	Singapore	562	Finland	554
3	Finland	536	Hong Kong	555	Hong Kong	549
4	Hong Kong	533	Korea	546	Singapore	542
5	Singapore	526	Chinese taipei	543	Japan	539
6	Canada	524	Finland	541	Korea	538
7	New Zealand	521	Liechtenstein	536	New Zealand	532
8	Japan	520	Switzerland	534	Canada	529
9	Australia	515	Japan	529	Estonia	528
10	Netherlands	508	Canada	527	Australia	527
11	Belgium	506	Netherlands	526	Netherlands	522
12	Norway	503	China: Macao	525	Chinese taipei	520
13	Estonia	501	New Zealand	519	Liechtenstein	520
14	Switzerland	501	Belgium	515	Germany	520
15	Iceland	500	Australia	514	Switzerland	517
16	Poland	500	Germany	513	United Kingdom	514
17	United States	500	Estonia	512	Slovenia	512
18	Liechtenstein	499	Iceland	507	China: Macao	511
19	Germany	497	Denmark	503	Poland	508
20	Sweden	497	Slovenia	501	Ireland	508
21	France	496	Norway	498	Belgium	507
22	Ireland	496	France	497	Hungary	503
23	Chinese taipei	495	Slovak Republic	497	United States	502
					PISA  average :	501
24	Denmark	495	Austria	496	Norway	500
			PISA  average :	496
25	Hungary	494	Poland	495	Czech Republic	500
26	United Kingdom	494	Sweden	494	Denmark	499
	PISA  average :	493
	Reading – Overall		Mathematics		Science
27	Portugal	489	Czech Republic	493	France	498
28	China: Macao	487	United Kingdom	492	Iceland	496
29	Italy	486	Hungary	490	Sweden	495
30	Latvia	484	Luxembourg	489	Austria	494
31	Greece	483	United States	487	Latvia	494
32	Slovenia	483	Ireland	487	Portugal	493
33	Spain	481	Portugal	487	Lithuania	491
34	Czech Republic	478	Italy	483	Slovak Republic	490
35	Slovak Republic	477	Spain	483	Italy	489
36	Croatia	476	Latvia	482	Spain	488
37	Israel	474	Lithuania	477	Croatia	486
38	Luxembourg	472	Russian Fed.	468	Luxembourg	484
39	Austria	470	Greece	466	Russian Fed.	478
40	Lithuania	468	Croatia	460	Greece	470
41	Turkey	464	Dubai (UAE)	453	Dubai (UAE)	466
42	Dubai (UAE)	459	Israel	447	Israel	455
43	Russian Fed.	459	Turkey	445	Turkey	454
44	Chile	449	Serbia	442	Chile	447
45	Serbia	442	Azerbaijan	431	Serbia	443
46	Bulgaria	429	Bulgaria	428	Bulgaria	439
47	Uruguay	426	Uruguay	427	Romania	428
48	Mexico	425	Romania	427	Uruguay	427
49	Romania	424	Chile	421	Thailand	425
50	Thailand	421	Mexico	419	Mexico	416
51	Trinidad&T.	416	Thailand	419	Jordan	415
52	Colombia	413	Trinidad&T.	414	Trinidad&T.	410
53	Brazil	412	Kazakhstan	405	Brazil	405
54	Montenegro	408	Montenegro	403	Colombia	402
55	Jordan	405	Argentina	388	Montenegro	401
56	Tunisia	404	Jordan	387	Argentina	401
57	Indonesia	402	Brazil	386	Tunisia	401
58	Argentina	398	Colombia	381	Kazakhstan	400
59	Kazakhstan	390	Albania	377	Albania	391
60	Albania	385	Tunisia	371	Indonesia	383
61	Qatar	372	Indonesia	371	Qatar	379
62	Panama	371	Qatar	368	Panama	376
63	Peru	370	Peru	365	Azerbaijan	373
64	Azerbaijan	362	Panama	360	Peru	369
65	Kyrgyzstan	314	Kyrgyzstan	331	Kyrgyzstan	330
	PISA  average :	493	PISA  average :	496	PISA  average :	501
	Reading – Overall		Mathematics		Science

OECD member countries:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom (UK), United States (USA).

OECD Partner Economies:

Albania, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chinese taipei (Taiwan), Colombia, Croatia, Dubai (UAE), Hong Kong-China, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Macao-China, Montenegro, Panama, Peru, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Shanghai-China, Singapore, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uruguay.

UN reports about OECD countries:

The UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre publishes reports on the performance of member countries in meeting the needs of their children. You can download any report in the series from the UNICEF-IRC website: Innocenti Report Cards.
 

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