PISA: 15-year-olds by reading proficiency level (%). Level 3 by country

About this data

Indicator

PISA: 15-year-olds by reading proficiency level (%). Level 3

Source

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)

Licence

CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data)

Coverage

55 places, 349 data points, 2000–2018

Last refreshed

07 August 2026

Percentage of 15-year-old students scoring higher than 480 but lower than or equal to 553 on the PISA reading scale. Readers at Level 3 can represent the literal meaning of single or multiple texts in the absence of explicit content or organizational clues. Readers can integrate content and generate both basic and more advanced inferences. They can also integrate several parts of a piece of text in order to identify the main idea, understand a relationship or construe the meaning of a word or phrase when the required information is featured on a single page. They can search for information based on indirect prompts, and locate target information that is not in a prominent position and/or is in the presence of distractors. In some cases, readers at this level recognize the relationship between several pieces of information based on multiple criteria. Level 3 readers can reflect on a piece of text or a small set of texts, and compare and contrast several authors’ viewpoints based on explicit information. Reflective tasks at this level may require the reader to perform comparisons, generate explanations or evaluate a feature of the text. Some reflective tasks require readers to demonstrate a detailed understanding of a piece of text dealing with a familiar topic, whereas others require a basic understanding of less-familiar content. Tasks at Level 3 require the reader to take many features into account when comparing, contrasting or categorizing information. The required information is often not prominent or there may be a considerable amount of competing information. Texts typical of this level may include other obstacles, such as ideas that are contrary to expectation or negatively worded. 2000, 2003, and 2006 PISA assessments used a different reading proficiency scale (Levels 1 to 5) than later assessments. PISA 2000/2003/2006 Level 3 data have been included in this database as Level 3 because they are based on an identical score range. Use caution in comparing proficiency scores across years. For more information on comparability of results, consult the PISA website: http://www.oecd.org/pisa/