The United Kingdom has participated in every PISA cycle from 2000 through 2025, but the OECD’s current comparable trend series for the country begins in 2006. In PISA 2025, the UK recorded mean scores of 511 in science, 494 in reading and 488 in mathematics. All three were above the corresponding OECD averages.
United Kingdom PISA 2025 Results
Science was the major assessment domain in 2025, while reading and mathematics were also assessed on their established PISA scales.
The three core-domain means should be read separately. PISA does not publish an official combined “overall PISA score” that averages science, reading and mathematics into one national result. In 2025, the UK’s largest gap above the OECD mean was in reading, followed by science and mathematics.
Comparable PISA Scores From 2006 to 2025
The UK took part in PISA 2000 and PISA 2003, but the OECD does not use those results in the country’s current internationally comparable trend series.
Science, Reading and Mathematics Across Comparable UK Cycles
Mean scores reported by the OECD for the United Kingdom, 2006–2025.
The vertical scale begins at 450 so that movement across cycles remains visible without treating small score differences as large proportional changes.
The long-run pattern is not uniform across subjects. Science declined from 515 in 2006 to 500 in 2022 before rising to 511 in 2025. Reading and mathematics both reached their highest comparable UK scores in 2018, then moved back toward earlier-cycle levels. Using the rounded published means, the spread between the UK’s highest and lowest core-domain scores was 23 points in 2025, compared with only 3 points in 2018.
United Kingdom PISA Score History
Participation spans 2000–2025; comparable mean-score reporting in the current OECD trend series begins in 2006.
Scroll horizontally to view all columns.
| PISA cycle | Science | Reading | Mathematics | Trend status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | — | — | — | Participated; not used in the current OECD comparable UK trend series |
| 2003 | — | — | — | Participated; not internationally comparable for the current UK trend series |
| 2006 | 515 | 495 | 495 | Comparable |
| 2009 | 514 | 494 | 492 | Comparable |
| 2012 | 514 | 499 | 494 | Comparable |
| 2015 | 509 | 498 | 492 | Comparable |
| 2018 | 505 | 504 | 502 | Comparable |
| 2022 | 500 | 494 | 489 | Comparable, with OECD sampling caution for the UK |
| 2025 | 511 | 494 | 488 | Latest reported cycle |
The dashes for 2000 and 2003 do not mean the UK did not participate. The OECD states that low response rates prevent those cycles from being used in the current comparable UK trend series.
What Changed Between PISA 2022 and PISA 2025?
The latest cycle produced a clear subject split: science moved upward, while reading and mathematics were about the same as in 2022.
Official 2022–2025 Change in Mean Performance
Score-point change reported by the OECD for the United Kingdom.
The OECD change table reports +12 points in science, 0 in reading and -1 in mathematics. Change estimates use underlying values before display rounding, so the science change does not have to equal the subtraction of the two rounded headline scores.
The science increase moved the UK mean back near levels last recorded around 2012. Reading remained at 494, while mathematics moved from 489 to 488. The OECD describes the 2025 mathematics and reading results as about the same as in 2022.
The latest movement differs from the longer pattern. Science had been declining across successive comparable cycles through 2022, then moved upward in 2025. Mathematics, by contrast, remained well below its 2018 mean of 502, and reading remained below its 2018 mean of 504.
How the 2025 Proficiency Distribution Compares With the OECD Average
Mean scores summarize the center of a performance distribution. Proficiency shares show how students are distributed below the baseline, through the middle levels and at the top levels.
Below Level 2, Levels 2–4 and Top Performers
United Kingdom and OECD average in science, mathematics and reading, PISA 2025.
Levels 2–4 are calculated from the OECD-published shares at or above Level 2 and the top-performer shares. Percentages are rounded.
- In all three core domains, the UK had a smaller share of students below Level 2 than the OECD average.
- The UK also had a larger top-performer share: 13% in science, 13% in mathematics and 9% in reading, compared with OECD averages of 7%, 8% and 6%.
PISA 2025 Proficiency Shares
Baseline attainment and top-performance shares for the United Kingdom and OECD average.
Scroll horizontally to view all columns.
| Domain | UK at Level 2+ | OECD at Level 2+ | UK top performers | OECD top performers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Science | 83% | 74% | 13% | 7% |
| Mathematics | 74% | 65% | 13% | 8% |
| Reading | 80% | 69% | 9% | 6% |
For science and mathematics, top performers are students at Levels 5 or 6. For reading, the OECD country note reports the share at Level 5 or higher.
Computational Problem Solving in PISA 2025
PISA 2025 added Learning in the Digital World, including a separate computational problem-solving scale.
This is a new 2025 domain and should not be inserted into the historical science, reading or mathematics trend as though it were a fourth long-running core subject. Its scale measures computational problem-solving performance within the Learning in the Digital World assessment.
Participation, Coverage and Comparability
The United Kingdom participated in PISA in 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2018, 2022 and 2025. The historical range therefore begins in 2000, but score-trend comparisons begin in 2006. The OECD explains that the UK’s 2000 and 2003 response rates prevent those earlier results from being used in the current comparable trend series.
In 2025, 15,566 students in 515 schools completed the assessment in the United Kingdom. The sample represented about 704,800 15-year-olds, estimated by the OECD at 85% of the total population of 15-year-olds. Overall exclusions exceeded the tolerance in PISA technical standards and were somewhat higher than in 2022, but the OECD judged the 2025 UK data fit for reporting.
PISA 2022 also carried a UK sampling caution in the OECD documentation. For that reason, differences involving 2022 should be read together with the uncertainty and sampling notes supplied by the OECD rather than as exact population measurements.
PISA scores are estimates from samples of students, not census counts of every 15-year-old. Small differences between cycles or countries can fall within statistical uncertainty. Mean scores also describe national distributions; they should not be interpreted as the proficiency level of every student in the system.
Data Sources and Measurement
The page uses OECD-published PISA results, trend tables and country documentation.
Used for the 2025 UK performance summary, proficiency shares, sample information, data-quality note and latest trend interpretation.
OECD — PISA 2025 Results: United KingdomUsed for 2025 mean scores, OECD averages, the official 2022–2025 score changes and computational problem-solving results.
OECD — Student Performance in PISA 2025Used as the current OECD trend basis for comparing the UK across assessment cycles.
OECD — Overview of Performance TrendsConfirms participation in every PISA cycle from 2000 through 2025.
OECD — PISA Participant: United KingdomUsed for the treatment of UK results from 2000 and 2003 and for OECD guidance on sampling, trend comparisons and score interpretation.
OECD — PISA Frequently Asked QuestionsThe historical table reports OECD mean scores rounded to whole points. The separate 2022–2025 change chart uses the OECD’s published change estimates, which are calculated from underlying values before display rounding. Proficiency percentages and mean scores are different measures and should not be substituted for one another.