PISA 2025, the largest assessment to date, tested 760,000 students across 91 countries and economies. Across the OECD, one in five 15-year-old students is now a low performer in science, mathematics and reading, up from 16% in 2022. Average reading scores fell 28 points between 2015 and 2025, equivalent to one and a half years of learning, while mathematics scores fell 22 points, equivalent to just over one year of learning.

Socio-economic background remains a powerful predictor of performance, with advantaged students scoring 85 points higher in science than disadvantaged students. Between 2015 and 2025, some education systems improved performance, including Lithuania, the Slovak Republic, Türkiye, and Uruguay. Most participating Chinese jurisdictions, together with Estonia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, and the United Kingdom, ranked among the ten highest-performing systems.

Students who say they did not use AI to draft text for writing assignments outperformed those who did. However, among frequent users, those who used AI to help them learn and were taught how to assess the quality of AI-generated information tended to perform better. Across OECD countries, almost two-thirds of students reached the relevant proficiency level in computational problem solving, but only half reached this level while also demonstrating basic proficiency in science, reading and mathematics.