Canada recorded mean scores of 510 in science, 490 in reading, and 485 in mathematics in PISA 2025. All three remained above their corresponding OECD averages, yet each was the lowest result recorded in Canada’s comparable PISA trend series.
The OECD reports Canada’s PISA 2025 results in full but marks the country with an asterisk because participation standards were not fully met. The school response rate was 79% before replacement and 82% after replacement, while the student response rate was 77%. OECD analysis found a slight upward bias in the national results from student non-response; its range-of-bias analysis indicated that the upward bias affecting the science mean is unlikely to exceed 15 score points.
Canada’s PISA 2025 Scores
Science was the major assessment domain in PISA 2025. Reading and mathematics were assessed as minor domains.
The point differences from the OECD averages are arithmetic calculations from OECD-published mean scores. They are not rankings. Small differences between countries can also fall within sampling uncertainty, so an ordinal position should not be inferred from the mean score alone.
Canada’s 2025 position has two distinct dimensions. Its three mean scores remain above OECD averages for the same cycle, while its own historical series has moved downward. A country can therefore remain above an international benchmark even as its score declines relative to its earlier results.
Canada’s PISA Scores Across Nine Assessment Cycles
Canada has participated in every PISA cycle since the program began in 2000.
Reading, Mathematics, and Science Mean Scores, 2000–2025
Comparable OECD trend series for Canada
The vertical scale runs from 450 to 550 score points to show movement within Canada’s observed trend range; it does not begin at zero. Reading has a comparable trend from 2000, mathematics from 2003, and science from 2006.
Canada PISA Historical Mean Scores
Official comparable trend values reported by the OECD.
Scroll horizontally to view all columns.
| PISA cycle | Reading | Mathematics | Science |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 534 | — | — |
| 2003 | 528 | 532 | — |
| 2006 | 527 | 527 | 534 |
| 2009 | 524 | 527 | 529 |
| 2012 | 523 | 518 | 525 |
| 2015 | 527 | 516 | 528 |
| 2018 | 520 | 512 | 518 |
| 2022 | 507 | 497 | 515 |
| 2025 | 490 | 485 | 510 |
The em dash does not mean Canada did not participate or that those subjects were absent from the assessment. OECD long-term trend comparisons begin with the first cycle in which each subject was the major PISA domain: reading in 2000, mathematics in 2003, and science in 2006. Earlier minor-domain estimates are therefore not inserted into these comparable series.
- Reading fell 44 points between its 2000 trend baseline and 2025, from 534 to 490.
- Mathematics fell 47 points between 2003 and 2025, from 532 to 485.
- Science fell 24 points between 2006 and 2025, from 534 to 510. Its long-run decrease is smaller than those in reading and mathematics.
The Decline Predates the 2022–2025 Cycle
The latest movement is part of a longer pattern rather than a change that appears only in PISA 2025.
Score Changes Over Different Time Windows
Point changes calculated from OECD-published Canadian mean scores.
| Subject | 2022→2025 | 2018→2025 | 2015→2025 | First comparable cycle→2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Science | −5 | −8 | −18 | −24 |
| Reading | −17 | −30 | −37 | −44 |
| Mathematics | −12 | −27 | −31 | −47 |
The first comparable cycles are 2006 for science, 2000 for reading, and 2003 for mathematics. These change values are calculations from the official mean-score series rather than separate OECD indicators.
Between PISA 2022 and PISA 2025, Canada’s reading mean declined by 17 points and its mathematics mean by 12 points. Science moved down by five points. The OECD treats the science movement over this interval as not statistically distinguishable from no change, while it reports lower 2025 performance in reading and mathematics.
The seven-year comparison with 2018 puts the recent results into a wider time window. Reading is 30 points lower than in 2018 and mathematics is 27 points lower. Science is eight points lower. The three subjects therefore share the same long-run direction, but the size of the movement is not uniform.
Reading and mathematics have moved farther than science since 2018
Science remained near its 2018 and 2022 levels compared with the much larger score movement in reading and mathematics. This subject divergence matters when interpreting a single statement such as “Canada’s PISA scores declined”: the direction is shared, but the scale of change differs considerably by domain.
PISA 2025 Proficiency Levels Show a Different Side of the Results
Mean scores describe the center of a performance distribution. Proficiency shares show how many students fall above or below defined PISA thresholds.
Canada and OECD Proficiency Shares in 2025
Students reaching at least Level 2 and students reaching Levels 5–6.
Scroll horizontally to view all columns.
| Subject | Canada Level 2+ | OECD Level 2+ | Canada Levels 5–6 | OECD Levels 5–6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Science | 84% | 74% | 11% | 7% |
| Reading | 78% | 69% | 9% | 6% |
| Mathematics | 74% | 65% | 11% | 8% |
Percentages are rounded as reported in the OECD Canada country note. Level 2 is used here as the baseline proficiency threshold, while Levels 5 and 6 identify top-performing students.
The Share Below Level 2 Increased Most in Mathematics and Reading
Change in Canada’s low-performing share from PISA 2015 to PISA 2025
Between 2015 and 2025, the share of Canadian students below Level 2 increased by 5 percentage points in science, 11 points in reading, and 12 points in mathematics.
The historical and cross-sectional comparisons point in different directions without contradicting each other. Canada has a larger low-performing share than it did in 2015, yet in 2025 it still has higher Level 2+ shares and higher Levels 5–6 shares than the corresponding OECD averages in all three subjects.
How the 2025 Results Compare With Canada’s Earlier High Points
Canada’s highest value in the comparable reading series is 534 in PISA 2000. Mathematics also begins from a high point of 532 when its comparable series starts in 2003. Science starts at 534 in 2006.
The series did not decline by the same amount in every cycle. Reading moved from 523 in 2012 to 527 in 2015 before falling to 520 in 2018, 507 in 2022, and 490 in 2025. Science similarly rose from 525 in 2012 to 528 in 2015 before moving to 518, 515, and 510 over the next three cycles. Mathematics shows a more consistently downward sequence after 2009.
By 2025, all three subject means were below their 2015 values: science by 18 points, reading by 37 points, and mathematics by 31 points. The OECD country note identifies the 2025 means as Canada’s lowest observed PISA results in each of the three subjects and reports the differences from 2015 as statistically detectable.
Participation and Coverage in Canada
Canada has maintained continuous participation, but national coverage still needs to be defined precisely.
The 2025 Canadian sample covered all 10 provinces. Students in Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut did not participate and are therefore not represented in the national PISA 2025 results. The territorial limitation should be kept separate from Canada’s participation history: Canada itself has an official result for every PISA cycle from 2000 through 2025.
What a PISA Mean Score Does — and Does Not — Measure
A national PISA mean is an estimate of average performance among the assessed population of 15-year-old students. It does not describe the exact proficiency of every student, and it is not a pass-or-fail score. Two countries with similar reported means can also have different distributions of low performers, middle performers, and students at Levels 5 or 6.
Trend interpretation requires another distinction. Reading, mathematics, and science did not establish their long-term scales in the same year. Reading became the first PISA major domain in 2000, mathematics in 2003, and science in 2006. That is why a defensible 2000–2025 Canada page can begin the overall participation history in 2000 while using different baseline years for subject-specific score change.
PISA scores are estimates based on samples rather than a census of every 15-year-old student. Sampling error, non-response, assessment design, and other technical elements create uncertainty around each mean. This is especially relevant for Canada in PISA 2025 because the OECD attached a sampling caution to the country’s reported results.
Data Sources and Measurement
PISA 2025 Results, Volume I: Canada provides Canada’s 2025 performance, proficiency shares, historical interpretation, sample size, and subject-level comparisons.
PISA 2025 Results, Volume I — Reader’s Guide documents Canada’s response rates, full-reporting asterisk, non-response analysis, and the OECD’s estimate of possible upward bias.
PISA 2022 Results, Volume I — Overview of Performance Trends supplies Canada’s comparable reading, mathematics, and science series from their respective baseline cycles through 2022.
PISA participant: Canada confirms participation in 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2018, 2022, and 2025.
PISA 2025 — Canadian Results provides national assessment context and confirms the September 8, 2026 release of PISA 2025 results.
Derived changes on this page use published OECD mean scores from the same subject series and subtract the earlier cycle from the later cycle. No missing PISA cycle is interpolated. Percentage changes in proficiency are expressed in percentage points rather than percent.