Countries by Low Math Skills
Complete ranking of 38 countries • Percentage of students • Updated 2026
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About Low Math Skills Rankings
Colombia leads all 38 countries in Low Math Skills with a value of 40.65% of students, while Estonia ranks last at 5.20% of students. This represents a 8-fold difference between the highest and lowest values.
What Low Math Skills Measures
Share of students with low math skills, from OECD How's Life / Well-Being.
Why This Ranking Matters
Examining Low Math Skills across all countries reveals patterns that might not be obvious at the national level. Regional clusters, outlier nations, and historical trajectories all become clearer when the full global picture is assembled in a single ranking.
Global Range
Values range from 5.20% of students (Estonia) to 40.65% of students (Colombia) — a 8-fold difference across 38 countries.
Regional Patterns
European countries dominate this ranking, holding 14 of the top 20 positions. This strong regional concentration suggests shared economic, geographic, or policy factors that drive higher values across the continent.
Values are broadly distributed across countries, with the middle 50% ranging from 11.96% of students to 18.46% of students. The overall spread from 5.20% of students to 40.65% of students reflects significant global variation.
Notable Outliers
The top of the ranking is competitive: Colombia and Mexico are separated by only 6%, indicating that the leading positions could shift with updated data.
Continental Leaders
Highest Low Math Skills
The 5 strongest Low Math Skills reads.
Lowest Low Math Skills
The 5 lowest Low Math Skills reads.
Data Note
Rankings are based on the latest available data from OECD How's Life / Well-Being, covering 38 of 249 countries and territories. Countries without data for this metric are excluded from the ranking. All values represent the most recently reported figures.
Top 10 Countries
Country Ladder
| Percentile | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Colombia | 40.65% of students | North America | 100% |
| 2nd | Mexico | 38.44% of students | North America | 97% |
| 3rd | Costa Rica | 38.07% of students | North America | 95% |
| 4th | Greece | 25.74% of students | Europe | 92% |
| 5th | Chile | 24.75% of students | South America | 89% |
| 6th | Iceland | 23.26% of students | Europe | 87% |
| 7th | Slovakia | 22.18% of students | Europe | 84% |
| 8th | Israel | 21.33% of students | Asia | 82% |
| 9th | Netherlands | 20.2% of students | Europe | 79% |
| 10th | Turkey | 18.46% of students | Europe | 76% |
| 11th | Norway | 17.5% of students | Europe | 74% |
| 12th | Luxembourg | 17.41% of students | Europe | 71% |
| 13th | France | 16.8% of students | Europe | 68% |
| 14th | Germany | 16.7% of students | Europe | 66% |
| 15th | Hungary | 16.5% of students | Europe | 63% |
| 16th | Austria | 15.53% of students | Europe | 61% |
| 17th | Sweden | 15.23% of students | Europe | 58% |
| 18th | Belgium | 15.23% of students | Europe | 55% |
| 19th | United States | 14.76% of students | North America | 53% |
| 20th | Lithuania | 14.35% of students | Europe | 50% |
| 21st | Portugal | 13.83% of students | Europe | 47% |
| 22nd | New Zealand | 13.68% of students | Oceania | 45% |
| 23rd | Italy | 12.94% of students | Europe | 42% |
| 24th | Spain | 12.88% of students | Europe | 39% |
| 25th | Switzerland | 12.36% of students | Europe | 37% |
| 26th | Czechia | 12.18% of students | Europe | 34% |
| 27th | Australia | 12.08% of students | Oceania | 32% |
| 28th | United Kingdom | 12.02% of students | Europe | 29% |
| 29th | Slovenia | 11.96% of students | Europe | 26% |
| 30th | Poland | 11.93% of students | Europe | 24% |
| 31st | Finland | 11.54% of students | Europe | 21% |
| 32nd | Latvia | 10.65% of students | Europe | 18% |
| 33rd | Denmark | 10.25% of students | Europe | 16% |
| 34th | Canada | 8.1% of students | North America | 13% |
| 35th | Ireland | 7.5% of students | Europe | 11% |
| 36th | South Korea | 7.3% of students | Asia | 8% |
| 37th | Japan | 5.3% of students | Asia | 5% |
| 38th | Estonia | 5.2% of students | Europe | 3% |