Countries by Low Reading Skills
Complete ranking of 38 countries • Percentage of students • Updated 2026
About Students With Low Skills In Reading, Mathematics And Science Rankings
Colombia leads all 38 countries in Students With Low Skills In Reading, Mathematics And Science with a value of 40.652, while Estonia ranks last at 5.20. This represents a 8-fold difference between the highest and lowest values.
What Students With Low Skills In Reading, Mathematics And Science Measures
Students With Low Skills In Reading, Mathematics And Science is a comparative indicator tracked across countries by the OECD. It provides a quantitative basis for cross-national comparison, enabling researchers and policymakers to benchmark national performance on this dimension against global peers.
Why This Ranking Matters
Examining Students With Low Skills In Reading, Mathematics And Science 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 (Estonia) to 40.652 (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 11.959 to 18.465. The overall spread from 5.20 to 40.652 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 Ranked
The top five countries for Students With Low Skills In Reading, Mathematics And Science are Colombia (40.652), Mexico (38.442), Costa Rica (38.074), Greece (25.742), and Chile (24.754). Together, these nations represent the global leaders in this metric.
Lowest Ranked
At the other end of the spectrum, Estonia (5.20), Japan (5.29), South Korea (7.29), Ireland (7.51), and Canada (8.12) have the lowest values globally.
Data Source & Methodology
Rankings are based on the latest available data from OECD, 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
Full Rankings
| Percentile | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st |  Colombia | 40.7% | North America | 100% |
| 2nd |  Mexico | 38.4% | North America | 97% |
| 3rd |  Costa Rica | 38.1% | North America | 95% |
| 4th |  Greece | 25.7% | Europe | 92% |
| 5th |  Chile | 24.8% | South America | 89% |
| 6th |  Iceland | 23.3% | Europe | 87% |
| 7th |  Slovakia | 22.2% | Europe | 84% |
| 8th |  Israel | 21.3% | Asia | 82% |
| 9th |  Netherlands | 20.2% | Europe | 79% |
| 10th |  Turkey | 18.5% | Europe | 76% |
| 11th |  Norway | 17.5% | Europe | 74% |
| 12th |  Luxembourg | 17.4% | Europe | 71% |
| 13th |  France | 16.8% | Europe | 68% |
| 14th |  Germany | 16.7% | Europe | 66% |
| 15th |  Hungary | 16.5% | Europe | 63% |
| 16th |  Austria | 15.5% | Europe | 61% |
| 17th |  Sweden | 15.2% | Europe | 58% |
| 18th |  Belgium | 15.2% | Europe | 55% |
| 19th |  United States | 14.8% | North America | 53% |
| 20th |  Lithuania | 14.4% | Europe | 50% |
| 21st |  Portugal | 13.8% | Europe | 47% |
| 22nd |  New Zealand | 13.7% | Oceania | 45% |
| 23rd |  Italy | 12.9% | Europe | 42% |
| 24th |  Spain | 12.9% | Europe | 39% |
| 25th |  Switzerland | 12.4% | Europe | 37% |
| 26th |  Czechia | 12.2% | Europe | 34% |
| 27th |  Australia | 12.1% | Oceania | 32% |
| 28th |  United Kingdom | 12.0% | Europe | 29% |
| 29th |  Slovenia | 12.0% | Europe | 26% |
| 30th |  Poland | 11.9% | Europe | 24% |
| 31st |  Finland | 11.5% | Europe | 21% |
| 32nd |  Latvia | 10.7% | Europe | 18% |
| 33rd |  Denmark | 10.3% | Europe | 16% |
| 34th |  Canada | 8.1% | North America | 13% |
| 35th |  Ireland | 7.5% | Europe | 11% |
| 36th |  South Korea | 7.3% | Asia | 8% |
| 37th |  Japan | 5.3% | Asia | 5% |
| 38th |  Estonia | 5.2% | Europe | 3% |