PISA: Female 15-year-olds by science proficiency level (%). Level 2 by country

Countries reporting

Highest

34.8%

Chile

Lowest

16.7%

Macao

Median

26.4%

Years covered

2003–2018

Data points

296

What the numbers show

PISA: Female 15-year-olds by science proficiency level (%). Level 2 is currently reported for 52 countries. The highest value is 34.8% in Chile; the lowest is 16.7% in Macao.

The median across all reporting countries is 26.4%, and the mean is 27.0%.

The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 2.

Over the past decade 33 countries rose and 19 fell. The largest increase was in Finland (up 48.8%), and the largest decrease in Macao (down 33.5%).

PISA: Female 15-year-olds by science proficiency level (%). Level 2: full country ranking

#	Country	Latest	Year	10-year change	Trend
1	Chile	34.8%	2018	down 4.9%	rising
2	Jordan	34.5%	2018	down 3.2%	flat
3	Mexico	33.7%	2018	down 1.5%	rising
4	Turkey	33.7%	2018	down 5.0%	flat
5	Thailand	33.5%	2018	down 8.7%	flat
6	Montenegro	33.5%	2018	up 5.9%	flat
7	Greece	32.3%	2018	up 5.5%	rising
8	Russia	32.3%	2018	up 4.5%	rising
9	Indonesia	31.7%	2018	up 8.9%	rising
10	Uruguay	31.4%	2018	up 3.3%	rising
11	Italy	31.4%	2018	up 19.2%	rising
12	Romania	31.1%	2018	down 13.0%	falling
13	Qatar	30.2%	2018	up 33.6%	rising
14	Croatia	30.2%	2018	up 1.8%	flat
15	Latvia	30.1%	2018	up 3.0%	flat
16	Colombia	29.5%	2018	up 7.1%	rising
17	Iceland	29.5%	2018	up 6.5%	rising
18	Lithuania	29.3%	2018	up 6.0%	rising
19	Spain	29.1%	2018	down 1.8%	flat
20	Bulgaria	28.2%	2018	down 1.8%	flat
21	Slovakia	28.0%	2018	up 1.5%	flat
22	Denmark	27.7%	2018	up 4.4%	flat
23	Portugal	27.5%	2018	down 8.0%	falling
24	Ireland	27.0%	2018	up 14.0%	rising
25	Hungary	26.5%	2018	down 0.5%	flat
26	Argentina	26.5%	2018	down 5.2%	rising
27	Brazil	26.3%	2018	down 8.8%	rising
28	Tunisia	26.2%	2015	up 3.1%	rising
29	Austria	26.1%	2018	up 3.1%	rising
30	Luxembourg	25.9%	2018	down 1.6%	falling
31	Norway	25.7%	2018	down 5.0%	falling
32	Czechia	25.7%	2018	up 1.2%	rising
33	Switzerland	25.4%	2018	up 19.4%	rising
34	Israel	25.4%	2018	down 8.0%	flat
35	Poland	25.2%	2018	down 4.4%	falling
36	France	24.9%	2018	up 6.5%	rising
37	United States	24.6%	2018	down 8.0%	flat
38	United Kingdom	24.2%	2018	up 3.0%	flat
39	Slovenia	24.1%	2018	up 3.2%	flat
40	Sweden	23.9%	2018	down 8.3%	flat
41	Australia	23.9%	2018	up 16.1%	rising
42	New Zealand	23.4%	2018	up 29.4%	rising
43	Germany	22.7%	2018	up 11.1%	rising
44	Canada	22.5%	2018	up 4.2%	flat
45	Belgium	22.5%	2018	up 5.5%	rising
46	Netherlands	22.0%	2018	up 2.3%	flat
47	South Korea	21.3%	2018	up 18.9%	rising
48	Estonia	21.0%	2018	up 0.8%	flat
49	Hong Kong	20.9%	2018	up 37.7%	rising
50	Japan	20.8%	2018	up 32.4%	rising
51	Finland	19.2%	2018	up 48.8%	rising
52	Macao	16.7%	2018	down 33.5%	falling

About this data

Indicator: PISA: Female 15-year-olds by science proficiency level (%). Level 2
Source: OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data)
Coverage: 52 places, 296 data points, 2003–2018
Last refreshed: 07 August 2026

Percentage of 15-year-old female students scoring higher than 410 but less than or equal to 484 on the PISA science scale. At Level 2, students are able to draw on everyday content knowledge and basic procedural knowledge to identify an appropriate scientific explanation, interpret data, and identify the question being addressed in a simple experimental design. They can use basic or everyday scientific knowledge to identify a valid conclusion from a simple data set. Level 2 students demonstrate basic epistemic knowledge by being able to identify questions that can be investigated scientifically. Data reflect country performance in the stated year, but may not be comparable across years or countries. Consult the PISA website for more detailed information: http://www.oecd.org/pisa/