France entered PISA in 2000 and has results in every cycle through 2025. The long-run picture is not a single downward line: reading recovered to its 2000 level by 2012, mathematics stayed in a narrow band for more than a decade after 2003, and science changed much less than the other two domains. The clearest break comes after 2018, when reading and mathematics both moved sharply lower.
France’s 2025 scores in historical context
The 2025 means remain close to the OECD averages, but that relative position sits alongside lower French scores than in earlier cycles.
PISA 2025: France, OECD average and change from 2022
Mean scores for the three core PISA domains. Score changes are calculated from OECD-published rounded means.
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| Domain | France 2025 | OECD 2025 | France − OECD | France 2022 | 2022→2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Science | 483 | 482 | +1 | 487 | −4 |
| Mathematics | 458 | 463 | −5 | 474 | −16 |
| Reading | 456 | 461 | −5 | 474 | −18 |
The OECD describes France as close to the OECD average in all three domains in 2025. The four-point science movement from 2022 is descriptive; OECD and France’s DEPP treat science performance as about the same as in 2022.
Being near the OECD average in 2025 does not mean France returned to its earlier performance. OECD reports that the 2025 results are among France’s lowest PISA results in all three domains and statistically lower than the country’s PISA 2015 results.
France’s full PISA score history, 2000–2025
France participated in every PISA cycle shown. Comparable trend series begin in different years for reading, mathematics and science.
Mean scores by PISA cycle
Reading is shown from 2000, mathematics from 2003 and science from 2006, matching the standard OECD long-term trend starting points for the domains.
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| PISA cycle | Reading | Mathematics | Science |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 505 | — | — |
| 2003 | 496 | 511 | — |
| 2006 | 488 | 496 | 495 |
| 2009 | 496 | 497 | 498 |
| 2012 | 505 | 495 | 499 |
| 2015 | 499 | 493 | 495 |
| 2018 | 493 | 495 | 493 |
| 2022 | 474 | 474 | 487 |
| 2025 | 456 | 458 | 483 |
An em dash does not mean France skipped the cycle. It marks years before the comparable long-run series used here begins for that domain.
Reading and mathematics separated sharply from science after 2018
France’s comparable PISA mean scores across all available cycles
The y-axis is limited to 430–520 so cycle-to-cycle movement remains readable; it does not start at zero. Missing early points reflect the different comparable trend starting years by domain.
- From 2018 to 2025, reading and mathematics each fell by 37 points. Science fell by 10 points over the same interval.
- The first-to-latest change is −49 points in reading (2000→2025), −53 in mathematics (2003→2025) and −12 in science (2006→2025).
Reading returned to 505 in 2012, then declined in every later cycle
France’s reading series does not support a simple story of uninterrupted decline from 2000. The score began at 505, dropped to 488 in 2006, then recovered to 505 in 2012. From that point, the sequence moved down at every cycle: 499 in 2015, 493 in 2018, 474 in 2022 and 456 in 2025.
The 49-point difference between 2000 and 2025 is therefore also a 49-point difference between 2012 and 2025. The long-run net loss is concentrated in the period after France had returned to its 2000 reading mean.
Mathematics was unusually stable from 2006 through 2018
France scored 511 in mathematics in 2003, then moved into a narrow 493–497 band from 2006 through 2018. Across those five cycles, the spread between the highest and lowest rounded mean was only four points. The pattern changed after 2018: 495 fell to 474 in 2022 and then to 458 in 2025.
This makes the post-2018 period more informative than a first-versus-last comparison alone. Of the 53-point decline between 2003 and 2025, 37 points occurred after 2018.
Science shows a smaller long-run movement
Science stayed between 493 and 499 from 2006 through 2018. It then moved to 487 in 2022 and 483 in 2025. The full 2006–2025 descriptive change is −12 points, much smaller than the corresponding first-to-latest changes in reading or mathematics.
That difference also illustrates why rounded score movement and statistical interpretation should be kept separate. France’s 2025 science mean is four points below 2022, yet the OECD describes the two cycles as about the same after accounting for uncertainty.
Lower mean scores are also visible in the proficiency distribution
A mean score summarizes the whole national distribution. PISA proficiency shares show how much of that distribution sits below the baseline threshold or at the top of the scale.
France’s proficiency tails in PISA 2025
Shares of 15-year-old students below Level 2 and at Levels 5–6.
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| Domain | Below Level 2 | Level 2 or higher | Levels 5–6 | Change in below-Level-2 share, 2015→2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Science | 26% | 74% | 7% | +4 pp |
| Mathematics | 36% | 64% | 5% | +12 pp |
| Reading | 33% | 67% | 5% | +11 pp |
Below-Level-2 shares are the complements of the OECD-reported Level 2-or-higher shares. “pp” means percentage points. Levels 5–6 are included within the Level 2-or-higher share, so the columns are not additive.
Mathematics has the largest below-Level-2 share among France’s three core domains
Low performers and top performers in PISA 2025
The two series show opposite tails of the distribution and do not sum to 100%.
The largest 2015–2025 increase in the below-Level-2 share occurred in mathematics (+12 percentage points), followed by reading (+11). Science increased by four points, matching the broader pattern in which science changed less than the other two domains.
A narrower socio-economic science gap did not come from rising scores among disadvantaged students
In PISA 2025 science, the top and bottom quarters of France’s socio-economic distribution were separated by 100 score points, compared with an OECD average gap of 85 points. OECD reports that France’s science gap narrowed between 2015 and 2025 because performance declined among advantaged students while remaining stable among disadvantaged students. The result is a useful reminder that a smaller gap and a higher national mean are different outcomes.
Why the three trend lines start in different years
France took part in PISA 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2018, 2022 and 2025. Participation history and domain trend history are not the same thing. For long-run comparisons, reading is shown from 2000, mathematics from 2003 and science from 2006. Those are the standard starting points used for the comparable OECD subject series.
PISA is cycle-based rather than annual. The assessment scheduled for 2021 was administered in 2022 after a one-year delay. That is why the sequence moves from 2018 to 2022 and then to 2025 rather than using evenly spaced three-year labels throughout the period.
Science was the major domain in PISA 2025, while mathematics and reading were minor domains. Mean-score estimates also carry sampling uncertainty. For that reason, a rounded point difference should not automatically be interpreted as a statistically detectable change. The clearest example on this page is science: 487 in 2022 and 483 in 2025, but the OECD describes the national result as about the same across the two cycles.
What the 2000–2025 record says about France
France’s PISA record separates into three distinct subject histories. Reading fell, recovered fully by 2012, and then entered a sustained decline. Mathematics moved from a high 2003 result into a long period of stability before a much sharper fall after 2018. Science stayed within a much narrower range across most of its comparable history and has declined more slowly.
The strongest common break is visible in reading and mathematics after 2018. Both domains are 37 points lower in 2025 than in 2018, while science is 10 points lower. The proficiency data point in the same direction: compared with 2015, the share below Level 2 rose far more in mathematics and reading than in science.
France therefore remains close to the OECD average in all three core domains in 2025 while also sitting well below several of its own earlier-cycle means. Relative position and historical performance answer different questions, and the long-run series is needed to see both.
Data sources and measurement
The latest mean scores, OECD comparisons, proficiency shares, 2022–2025 trend interpretation, 2015–2025 low-performer changes and science socio-economic results come from the OECD PISA 2025 Results, Volume I country note for France.
The 2000–2022 score series is based on the France trend table in OECD PISA 2022 Results, Volume I: Overview of Performance Trends. The 2025 values are then added from the PISA 2025 France country note.
OECD lists France as participating in every cycle from 2000 through 2025 on the PISA participant profile for France.
France’s DEPP reports provide the national 2025 analysis for science and for reading and mathematics.
- Mean scores are rounded national estimates and summarize a distribution of student performance; they are not individual proficiency levels.
- Differences calculated on this page use the rounded OECD-published means and are descriptive unless the OECD source explicitly provides a statistical interpretation.
- OECD averages shown in the 2025 snapshot are the corresponding PISA 2025 OECD averages, not a fixed matched-country benchmark carried backward across all cycles.
- France met PISA 2025 technical quality standards and its data were considered fit for reporting by the OECD.