PISA: Female 15-year-olds by reading proficiency level (%). Level 1A by country

Percentage of 15-year-old female students scoring higher than 335 but lower than or equal to 407 on the PISA reading scale. Readers at Level 1a can understand the literal meaning of sentences or short passages. Readers at this level can also recognize the main theme or the author’s purpose in a piece of text about...

Countries reporting
55
Highest
19.0%
Tunisia
Lowest
3.0%
Estonia
Median
6.0%
Years covered
19
2000–2018
Data points
356

What the numbers show

PISA: Female 15-year-olds by reading proficiency level (%). Level 1A is currently reported for 55 countries. The highest value is 19.0% in Tunisia; the lowest is 3.0% in Estonia.

The median across all reporting countries is 6.0%, and the mean is 7.9%.

The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 6.

Over the past decade 38 countries rose and 5 fell. The largest increase was in South Korea (up 300.0%), and the largest decrease in Spain (down 28.6%).

PISA: Female 15-year-olds by reading proficiency level (%). Level 1A: full country ranking

#Country LatestYear 10-year changeTrend
1 Tunisia 19.0% 2015 up 26.7% rising
1 Thailand 19.0% 2018 up 18.8% rising
1 Indonesia 19.0% 2018 up 18.8% falling
4 Colombia 16.0% 2018 up 6.7% rising
5 Mexico 15.0% 2018 up 25.0% rising
5 Albania 15.0% 2018 up 15.4% falling
7 Argentina 14.0% 2018 up 7.7% rising
7 Peru 14.0% 2018 unchanged rising
9 Brazil 13.0% 2018 down 13.3% falling
10 Uruguay 12.0% 2018 unchanged rising
10 Qatar 12.0% 2018 unchanged falling
10 Montenegro 12.0% 2018 unchanged falling
13 Jordan 11.0% 2018 unchanged falling
13 Bulgaria 11.0% 2018 up 37.5% flat
15 Romania 10.0% 2018 unchanged falling
15 Chile 10.0% 2018 up 11.1% falling
17 Liechtenstein 8.0% 2012 up 19.2% falling
18 Slovakia 8.0% 2018 up 60.0% rising
18 Turkey 8.0% 2018 up 33.3% rising
18 Luxembourg 8.0% 2018 up 33.3% flat
21 Austria 7.0% 2018 unchanged rising
21 Netherlands 7.0% 2018 up 40.0% rising
21 Israel 7.0% 2018 up 16.7% falling
21 Greece 7.0% 2018 up 40.0% rising
21 Hungary 7.0% 2018 up 75.0% rising
26 Lithuania 6.0% 2018 up 20.0% rising
26 Switzerland 6.0% 2018 up 50.0% rising
26 Portugal 6.0% 2018 up 50.0% falling
26 France 6.0% 2018 up 20.0% rising
26 Czechia 6.0% 2018 up 20.0% rising
26 Latvia 6.0% 2018 up 50.0% falling
26 Croatia 6.0% 2018 up 20.0% rising
26 Russia 6.0% 2018 down 14.3% falling
26 United States 6.0% 2018 up 20.0% rising
26 Italy 6.0% 2018 up 20.0% flat
26 Belgium 6.0% 2018 up 20.0% rising
26 Iceland 6.0% 2018 up 50.0% rising
38 United Kingdom 5.0% 2018 unchanged rising
38 Australia 5.0% 2018 up 66.7% rising
38 Sweden 5.0% 2018 up 25.0% rising
38 New Zealand 5.0% 2018 up 66.7% rising
38 Spain 5.0% 2015 down 28.6% falling
38 Japan 5.0% 2018 up 66.7% rising
38 Germany 5.0% 2018 unchanged falling
45 Canada 4.0% 2018 up 100.0% rising
45 Poland 4.0% 2018 up 33.3% falling
45 Norway 4.0% 2018 up 33.3% falling
45 Ireland 4.0% 2018 unchanged rising
45 South Korea 4.0% 2018 up 300.0% volatile
45 Slovenia 4.0% 2018 unchanged rising
45 Denmark 4.0% 2018 down 20.0% falling
52 Macao 3.0% 2018 down 25.0% flat
52 Hong Kong 3.0% 2018 up 50.0% rising
52 Finland 3.0% 2018 up 200.0% rising
52 Estonia 3.0% 2018 unchanged flat

Regions and income groups

Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.

About this data

Indicator
PISA: Female 15-year-olds by reading proficiency level (%). Level 1A
Source
OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data)
Coverage
56 places, 356 data points, 2000–2018
Last refreshed

Percentage of 15-year-old female students scoring higher than 335 but lower than or equal to 407 on the PISA reading scale. Readers at Level 1a can understand the literal meaning of sentences or short passages. Readers at this level can also recognize the main theme or the author’s purpose in a piece of text about a familiar topic, and make a simple connection between several adjacent pieces of information, or between the given information and their own prior knowledge. They can select a relevant page from a small set based on simple prompts, and locate one or more independent pieces of information within short texts. Level 1a readers can reflect on the overall purpose and on the relative importance of information (e.g. the main idea vs. non-essential detail) in simple texts containing explicit cues. Most tasks at this level contain explicit cues regarding what needs to be done, how to do it, and where in the text(s) readers should focus their attention. 2000, 2003, and 2006 PISA assessments used a different reading proficiency scale (Levels 1 to 5) than later assessments. PISA 2000/2003/2006 Level 1 data have been included in this database as Level 1A 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/