Canada
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Canada
Adult skills (Survey of Adult Skills, PIAAC, 2023)
| Country note | Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) | Survey of Adult Skills 2023: Do Adults Have the Skills They Need to Thrive in a Changing World? | The Survey of Adult Skills - Reader's Companion | Understanding Skill Gaps in Firms: Results of the PIAAC Employer Module | Survey of Adult Skills 2023 Data Analysis Manual |
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The following list displays indicators for which your selected country shows the highest and lowest values among countries.
The list can be sorted by level of education or by age group. All rankings are calculated including available data from OECD
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Find out more about the methodology here.
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Literacy
The mean literacy score is high compared to other countries participating in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). (271 PIAAC Score, rank 10/31 , 2023) Download Indicator
The percentage of adults scoring at or below level 1 in Iiteracy is low compared to other countries participating in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). (19.3 %, rank 23/31 , 2023) Download Indicator
Numeracy
The percentage of adults scoring at or below level 1 in numeracy is low compared to other countries participating in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). (20.1 %, rank 22/31 , 2023) Download Indicator
Adaptive problem solving
The mean score in adaptive problem solving in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) is high compared to other participating countries. (259 PIAAC Score, rank 10/31 , 2023) Download Indicator
The percentage of adults scoring low (at or below Level 1) in adaptive problem solving in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) is low compared to other participating countries. (22 %, rank 22/31 , 2023) Download Indicator
Skills differences by gender
The mean score in adaptive problem solving for men is high compared to other participating countries. (261 PIAAC Score, rank 10/31 , 2023) Download Indicator
The mean score in adaptive problem solving for women is high compared to other countries participating in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). (258 PIAAC Score, rank 10/31 , 2023) Download Indicator
The mean literacy score among men is high compared to other countries participating in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). (271 PIAAC Score, rank 8/31 , 2023) Download Indicator
The mean literacy score among women is high compared to other countries participating in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). (271 PIAAC Score, rank 9/31 , 2023) Download Indicator
Skills by immigrant and language background
The mean literacy score for foreign-born adults of foreign-born parents is high compared to other countries participating in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). (253 PIAAC Score, rank 2/30 , 2023) Download Indicator
The mean numeracy score for foreign-born adults of foreign-born parents is high compared to other countries participating in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). (263 PIAAC Score, rank 2/30 , 2023) Download Indicator
The mean score in adaptive problem solving for foreign-born adults of foreign-born parents is high compared to other countries participating in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). (245 PIAAC Score, rank 2/30 , 2023) Download Indicator
Adults' skills
The percentage of adults scoring at or below level 1 in literacy and/or numeracy is low compared to other countries participating in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). (14.9 %, rank 22/31 , 2023) Download Indicator
The change in mean literacy score in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) from 2012 to 2023 is high compared to other countries participating in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). (-1 PIAAC Score, rank 8/27 , 2023) Download Indicator
The change in mean numeracy score in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) from 2012 to 2023 is high compared to other countries participating in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). (7 PIAAC Score, rank 7/27 , 2023) Download Indicator
Who the teachers are
The share of women among teaching staff in primary education is one of the smallest across OECD and partner countries with available data. (75.4 %, rank 36/43 , 2024) Download Indicator
The share of women among teaching staff in upper secondary education is one of the largest across OECD and partner countries with available data. (75.4 %, rank 3/42 , 2024) Download Indicator
The percentage of primary to upper secondary teachers aged between 30 and 49 is especially high. (60.1 %, rank 9/42 , 2024) Download Indicator
In Canada, the share of female teachers younger than 30 in tertiary education is relatively large. (57.2 %, rank 8/38 , 2024) Download Indicator
In Canada, the share of short-cycle tertiary teachers older than 50 is relatively high, compared to other countries with data available. (47.2 %, rank 8/25 , 2024) Download Indicator
Ratio of student to teaching staff
In Canada, the student-teacher ratio for bachelor's, master's, doctoral or equivalent programmes in public institutions is among the highest across participating countries. (22.5 Ratio, rank 3/35 , 2024) Download Indicator
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General findings
- In the 2023 Survey of Adult Skills, literacy is defined as "accessing, understanding, evaluating, and reflecting on written texts in order to achieve one's goals, to develop one's knowledge and potential, and to participate in society" (Rouet et al., 2021). Proficiency in literacy is crucial for adults across their personal, social and professional spheres, given the prevalence of written communication in various aspects of life. Throughout the day, adults engage in a diverse range of reading activities, spanning from delving into extensive pieces of continuous text to swiftly scanning pages for pertinent information. Examples include reading emails, leaflets, timetables and instruction manuals.
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- In the 2023 Survey of Adult Skills, numeracy encompasses "accessing, using, and reasoning critically with mathematical content, information and ideas represented in multiple ways in order to engage in and manage the mathematical demands of a range of situations in adult life" (Tout et al., 2021). The skills and knowledge needed for work and civic participation, and in more personal spheres of life, have changed. Individuals are presented with ever-increasing amounts of information of a quantitative or mathematical nature through online or technology-based resources, which have to be located, selected or filtered, interpreted, and at times questioned and doubted, and analysed for their relevance to the responses needed.
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- The first cycle of the Survey of Adult Skills measured problem solving in technology-rich environments. This is defined as the ability to use digital technology, communication tools and networks to acquire and evaluate information, communicate with others and perform practical tasks. The survey assessed adults' ability to solve problems by establishing appropriate goals and plans, and accessing and using information through computers and computer networks.
In the 2023 Survey of Adult Skills, problem solving in technology-rich environments was replaced by adaptive problem solving (APS). This involves "the capacity to achieve one’s goals in a dynamic situation in which a method for solution is not immediately available. It requires engaging in cognitive and metacognitive processes to define the problem, search for information, and apply a solution in a variety of information environments and contexts" (Greiff et al., 2021).
APS has three important features. First, it emphasises individuals’ capacity to flexibly and dynamically adapt their problem-solving strategies to a dynamically changing environment. Second, it tests their ability to identify and select among a range of available physical, social and digital resources. Third, individuals need to monitor and reflect on their progress in solving problems, through metacognitive processes.
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Note: These values should be interpreted with care since they are influenced by countries' specific contexts and trade-offs. In education, there is often no simple
most- or least-efficient model. For instance, the share of private expenditure in education must be read against other measures designed to mitigate inequities,
such as loans and grants; longer learning time is an opportunity to convey more and better content to students, but may hinder investments in other important
areas. If you want further information on the nature of different variables, please take the time to read the analysis and contextual information, available at the website
for each publication.
All rankings for individual variables are compiled on the basis of OECD and G20 countries for which data are available. The OECD average includes only OECD countries which are listed here: https://www.oecd.org/en/about/members-partners.html
Reference years displayed in the Education GPS correspond to the most common year of reference among countries for which data is available on each variable. Data for the latest available year is preferred and some countries may have provided data refering to a more recent or late year. However, OECD averages from Education at a Glance coming from the OECD database are the averages for the indicator reference year appearing in the Education GPS and may differ from averages in the book where averages can include data from multiple reference years, based on countries' data availability.
To know more about possible exceptions on data please click on the "Download Indicator" link on each variable. When a year of reference corresponds to a school year encompassing two years, the reference reads as follows: 2026 for school year 2025/2026 in the Northern Hemisphere.
*TALIS averages are based on all countries participating in the TALIS survey, including partner countries and economies. This explains the difference between the OECD average and the TALIS averages. Data from the TALIS survey and Education at a Glance (EAG) may differ. See Annex E of the TALIS technical report and Sources Methodologies and Technical Notes of EAG 2025 for more details about the data collections.
For additional notes, please refer to annexes in the list of links below the introductory country profile text.
All rankings for individual variables are compiled on the basis of OECD and G20 countries for which data are available. The OECD average includes only OECD countries which are listed here: https://www.oecd.org/en/about/members-partners.html
Reference years displayed in the Education GPS correspond to the most common year of reference among countries for which data is available on each variable. Data for the latest available year is preferred and some countries may have provided data refering to a more recent or late year. However, OECD averages from Education at a Glance coming from the OECD database are the averages for the indicator reference year appearing in the Education GPS and may differ from averages in the book where averages can include data from multiple reference years, based on countries' data availability.
To know more about possible exceptions on data please click on the "Download Indicator" link on each variable. When a year of reference corresponds to a school year encompassing two years, the reference reads as follows: 2026 for school year 2025/2026 in the Northern Hemisphere.
*TALIS averages are based on all countries participating in the TALIS survey, including partner countries and economies. This explains the difference between the OECD average and the TALIS averages. Data from the TALIS survey and Education at a Glance (EAG) may differ. See Annex E of the TALIS technical report and Sources Methodologies and Technical Notes of EAG 2025 for more details about the data collections.
For additional notes, please refer to annexes in the list of links below the introductory country profile text.