Data for 2012

PISA Reading Performance, 2012

Name: PISA Reading Performance, 2012
Creator: OECD
License: https://www.oecd.org/en/about/terms-conditions.html

Figures for 2012, as OECD published them · stored as published, never rewritten

PISA Reading Performance, 2012 covers 58 countries. Hong Kong is highest, at 544.600; Peru is lowest, at 384.151. The middle country reads 486.780. Against 2009, 56 values changed (34 up, 22 down), 2 countries joined, 4 left.

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PISA Reading Performance · Data for 2012

HighestHong Kong

544.600

LowestPeru

384.151

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the better end.

58countries
1measure
2012the year it describes
58distinct values13 decimals, as published
Sep 6, 2026read from the publisher
OECD termslicence

01Position · derived

The table

Every country and every column of PISA Reading Performance, 2012, as published. OECD ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.

Search this table

Showing 25 of 58 countries · select a heading to sort

PISA Reading Performance, 2012: every country, as published by OECD.
derived
1	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	544.600
2	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	542.216
3	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	538.051
4	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	535.790
5	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	524.022
6	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	523.173
7	Canada`CAN`Northern America	523.124
8	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	523.119
9	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	518.187
10	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	516.294
11	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	512.187
12	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	511.804
13	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	511.230
14	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	509.040
15	Macau`MAC`Eastern Asia	508.949
16	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	508.618
17	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	507.677
18	France`FRA`Western Europe	505.481
19	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	503.937
20	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	499.323
21	United States`USA`Northern America	497.582
22	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	496.131
23	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	492.890
24	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	489.754
25	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	489.609
26	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	488.694
27	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	488.461
28	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	487.939
29	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	487.758
30	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	485.803
31	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	484.565
32	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	483.335
33	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	482.522
34	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	481.316
35	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	477.307
36	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	477.197
37	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	475.491
38	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	462.767
39	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	448.953
40	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	446.130
41	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	441.704
42	Chile`CHL`South America	441.398
43	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	441.220
44	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	440.548
45	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	437.599
46	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	436.126
47	Mexico`MEX`Central America	423.554
48	Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	422.111
49	Uruguay`URY`South America	411.349
50	Brazil`BRA`South America	406.533
51	Colombia`COL`South America	403.403
52	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	398.196
53	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	396.120
54	Argentina`ARG`South America	395.979
55	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	393.964
56	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	392.736
57	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	387.504
58	Peru`PER`South America	384.151

02In 2012

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

1Hong Kong544.600
2Singapore542.216
3Japan538.051
4South Korea535.790
5Finland524.022

Lowest

58Peru384.151
57Qatar387.504
56Kazakhstan392.736
55Albania393.964
54Argentina395.979

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 486.780. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032009 → 2012

Since 2009

What changed between 2009 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+2 / −4countries joined / left
56values changed, of 56 in both
34 · 22rose · fell
0unchanged

Rose most

Taiwan495.240 → 523.119+27.878
Ireland495.639 → 523.173+27.534
Macau486.635 → 508.949+22.314
Thailand421.374 → 441.220+19.846
Japan519.858 → 538.051+18.194

Fell most

Iceland500.283 → 482.522−17.761
Malaysia413.812 → 398.196−15.616
Slovakia477.443 → 462.767−14.676
Uruguay425.813 → 411.349−14.464
Sweden497.449 → 483.335−14.114

+ Austria

+ Cyprus

− Georgia

− Moldova

− Malta

− Panama

Changes in value, not in places: a country’s place also moves when others do. Every country’s full history is charted on the statistic page.

04Caveats

Read before you use

What this edition’s numbers are and are not, worked out from the file itself.

How values are stored

The position is ours
OECD publishes values only; the order is this site’s.
Nothing missing
Every one of the 58 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

The table as a file, digit for digit, what this site changed, and a citation for this edition.

Licence in full

.csv
For a spreadsheet or code
58 rows · 2.9 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download pisa-reading-2012-nations-inquiry.csv
↗
The publisher’s original
OECD’s own file, on its own site.
wh9d4z.xlsx

What this site changed: Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.

Licence: OECD Terms and Conditions — Data clause · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

OECD (2012). PISA Reading Performance, 2012 [data set], describing 2012. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/pisa-reading/2012

068 held

Other years

‹ The year before
PISA Reading Performance, 2009
60 countries
The year after ›
PISA Reading Performance, 2015
60 countries
All of them
PISA Reading Performance: every year
8 held, with the data dictionary, coverage and licence.
How it has moved, charted by country

07Questions