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

Countries reporting

Highest

35.7%

Hong Kong

Lowest

6.2%

Tunisia

Median

28.6%

Years covered

2003–2018

Data points

296

What the numbers show

PISA: Female 15-year-olds by science proficiency level (%). Level 3 is currently reported for 52 countries. The highest value is 35.7% in Hong Kong; the lowest is 6.2% in Tunisia.

The median across all reporting countries is 28.6%, and the mean is 26.3%.

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

Over the past decade 22 countries rose and 30 fell. The largest increase was in Qatar (up 79.0%), and the largest decrease in Tunisia (down 41.6%).

PISA: Female 15-year-olds by science proficiency level (%). Level 3: full country ranking

#	Country	Latest	Year	10-year change	Trend
1	Hong Kong	35.7%	2018	up 14.7%	rising
2	Macao	34.0%	2018	down 13.7%	flat
3	Slovenia	33.3%	2018	up 8.9%	rising
4	Latvia	33.2%	2018	down 10.4%	rising
5	Ireland	32.6%	2018	up 6.4%	rising
6	Estonia	32.5%	2018	down 8.9%	falling
7	Poland	31.9%	2018	down 7.4%	rising
8	Japan	31.6%	2018	up 10.5%	rising
9	Denmark	31.4%	2018	up 1.2%	rising
10	Lithuania	30.9%	2018	down 9.0%	falling
11	Finland	30.9%	2018	up 6.6%	flat
12	Canada	30.8%	2018	down 5.7%	flat
13	Portugal	30.7%	2018	down 8.4%	rising
14	Norway	30.6%	2018	down 4.2%	rising
15	Spain	30.5%	2018	down 8.4%	rising
16	Russia	30.4%	2018	up 2.1%	rising
17	South Korea	30.1%	2018	down 14.2%	falling
18	France	30.1%	2018	down 2.8%	rising
19	Austria	29.8%	2018	up 5.1%	flat
20	Belgium	29.4%	2018	up 2.5%	flat
21	Iceland	29.4%	2018	down 7.8%	falling
22	Czechia	29.3%	2018	up 2.6%	rising
23	Sweden	28.9%	2018	down 1.5%	flat
24	Switzerland	28.9%	2018	down 6.6%	flat
25	United States	28.7%	2018	up 2.2%	rising
26	Turkey	28.6%	2018	up 5.2%	rising
27	United Kingdom	28.5%	2018	down 4.6%	flat
28	Greece	28.5%	2018	down 3.5%	flat
29	Croatia	28.4%	2018	down 14.4%	falling
30	Australia	28.4%	2018	down 5.4%	flat
31	Hungary	28.3%	2018	down 17.0%	falling
32	Germany	28.3%	2018	down 1.7%	flat
33	New Zealand	28.1%	2018	down 1.1%	flat
34	Italy	27.9%	2018	down 11.7%	flat
35	Slovakia	27.4%	2018	down 10.9%	falling
36	Luxembourg	26.0%	2018	down 6.5%	falling
37	Netherlands	25.8%	2018	down 3.6%	flat
38	Israel	25.8%	2018	up 1.7%	rising
39	Jordan	23.9%	2018	up 11.5%	rising
40	Chile	22.2%	2018	up 0.2%	rising
41	Thailand	20.3%	2018	up 11.2%	rising
42	Qatar	20.2%	2018	up 79.0%	rising
43	Bulgaria	20.1%	2018	down 13.4%	flat
44	Romania	19.0%	2018	down 11.2%	rising
45	Uruguay	18.5%	2018	down 4.5%	falling
46	Montenegro	15.9%	2018	up 7.2%	rising
47	Mexico	14.5%	2018	up 0.7%	flat
48	Argentina	14.3%	2018	down 9.2%	flat
49	Brazil	13.8%	2018	up 10.3%	rising
50	Colombia	13.6%	2018	up 26.9%	rising
51	Indonesia	9.6%	2018	up 26.4%	rising
52	Tunisia	6.2%	2015	down 41.6%	falling

About this data

Indicator: PISA: Female 15-year-olds by science proficiency level (%). Level 3
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 484 but less than or equal to 559 on the PISA science scale. At Level 3, students can draw upon moderately complex content knowledge to identify or construct explanations of familiar phenomena. In less familiar or more complex situations, they can construct explanations with relevant cueing or support. They can draw on elements of procedural or epistemic knowledge to carry out a simple experiment in a constrained context. Level 3 students are able to distinguish between scientific and non-scientific issues and identify the evidence supporting a scientific claim. 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/