Korea
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Korea
Student performance (PISA 2025)
| PISA 2025 | Country Note | PISA Dashboard | PISA 2025 Assessment and Analytical Framework | PISA Database | Important note on countries |
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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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Student performance in science
The percentage of top performers in science (proficiency Level 5 or 6) is one of the highest among PISA-participating countries and economies. (14.7 %, rank 5/90 , 2025) Download Indicator
The percentage of top-performing boys in science (proficiency Level 5 or 6) is one of the highest among PISA-participating countries and economies. (16.4 %, rank 5/90 , 2025) Download Indicator
The percentage of top-performing girls in science (proficiency Level 5 or 6) is one of the highest among PISA-participating countries and economies. (12.9 %, rank 5/90 , 2025) Download Indicator
Student performance in mathematics
Girls' performance in mathematics is one of the highest among PISA-participating countries and economies. (517 PISA Score points, rank 5/89 , 2025) Download Indicator
The score difference in mathematics between the 10% of students with the highest scores and the 10% of students with the lowest scores is one of the largest among PISA-participating countries and economies. (290 PISA Score points, rank 2/89 , 2025) Download Indicator
The percentage of top performers in mathematics (proficiency Level 5 or 6) is one of the highest among PISA-participating countries and economies. (23.2 %, rank 5/89 , 2025) Download Indicator
The percentage of top-performing boys in mathematics (proficiency Level 5 or 6) is one of the highest among PISA-participating countries and economies. (26.5 %, rank 5/89 , 2025) Download Indicator
The percentage of top-performing girls in mathematics (proficiency Level 5 or 6) is one of the highest among PISA-participating countries and economies. (19.8 %, rank 5/89 , 2025) Download Indicator
Student performance in reading
The mean score in reading performance is one of the highest among PISA-participating countries and economies. (501 PISA Score points, rank 5/89 , 2025) Download Indicator
Girls' performance in reading is one of the highest among PISA-participating countries and economies. (515 PISA Score points, rank 4/89 , 2025) Download Indicator
The percentage of low-performing girls in reading (below proficiency Level 2) is one of the lowest among PISA-participating countries and economies. (12.9 %, rank 85/89 , 2025) Download Indicator
Student performance in mathematics, reading and science
The percentage of top performers in all subjects (mathematics, reading and science) is one of the highest among PISA-participating countries and economies. (5.8 %, rank 5/87 , 2025) Download Indicator
Performance and diversity
After accounting for socio-economic status, the difference in mathematics performance between non-immigrant and immigrant students is one of the largest among PISA-participating countries and economies, in favour of immigrants. (-83 PISA Score, rank 65/65 , 2025) Download Indicator
The percentage of students with an immigrant backgroung is one of the lowest among countries and economies participating in PISA. (0.8 %, rank 83/86 , 2025) Download Indicator
Participation in education
The percentage of students who have repeated a grade during primary, lower secondary or upper secondary school is one of the lowest among PISA-participating countries and economies. (1.5 %, rank 84/85 , 2025) Download Indicator
Classroom environment
In Korea, a large share of students attend schools whose principal reported that the school's capacity to provide instruction is hindered to some extent or a lot by a lack of teaching staff. (56.2 %, rank 5/88 , 2025) Download Indicator
In Korea, the index of disciplinary climate in school science is relatively high. (1.32 PISA Index, rank 1/82 , 2025) Download Indicator
The change between 2015 and 2025 in the index of disciplinary climate in school science in Korea was among the largest increases across countries with available data. (0.69 PISA Index, rank 1/46 , 2025) Download Indicator
Student well-being
In Korea, the share of students who agreed or strongly agreed that they make friends easily was among the smallest across countries with available data. (72.1 %, rank 87/88 , 2025) Download Indicator
Bullying
In 2025, the index of exposure to bullying was one of the lowest among PISA-participating countries and economies. (-0.43 PISA Index, rank 85/88 , 2025) Download Indicator
Compared to other PISA-participating countries and economies, the percentage of students who reported being bullied (getting hit or pushed around by other students) at least a few times a month is relatively low. (1.6 %, rank 87/88 , 2025) Download Indicator
Korea had one of the smallest shares of students who reported being cyberbullied (information about them that was upsetting were published online without their consent). (1.2 %, rank 85/86 , 2025) Download Indicator
Students' engagement, drive and self-beliefs
The gender difference in enjoyment of learning science (boys - girls) is relatively large in favor of boys in Korea compared to other OECD and partner countries/economies. (0.31 PISA Index, rank 4/64 , 2025) Download Indicator
A small share of students reported skipping a whole school day at least once in the two weeks prior to the PISA test. (3.4 %, rank 88/88 , 2025) Download Indicator
Korea ranked as one of the top-performing countries when comparing the share of students who reported arriving late for school at least once in the two weeks prior to the PISA test. (16 %, rank 88/88 , 2025) Download Indicator
Korea had one of the largest shares of students who disagree that school has been a waste of time. (90.2 %, rank 5/87 , 2025) Download Indicator
Korea had one of the largest shares of students who disagree that school has done little to prepare them for adult life when they leave school. (84.9 %, rank 1/87 , 2025) Download Indicator
The gender difference in the index of curiosity (boys - girls) in Korea shows a narrow gap in favor of boys compared with other countries with available data. (0.21 PISA Index, rank 1/66 , 2025) Download Indicator
In Korea, the gender difference in the index of perseverance (boys - girls) shows a slight difference in favor of boys compared with other countries with available data. (0.15 PISA Index, rank 3/60 , 2025) Download Indicator
In Korea, the gender difference in the index of goal setting (boys - girls) shows a small difference in favor of girls compared with other countries with available data. (-0.06 PISA Index, rank 2/70 , 2025) Download Indicator
The gender difference in the index of cognitive adaptability (boys - girls) placed Korea among countries with the widest differences in favor of boys. (0.2 PISA Index, rank 3/47 , 2025) Download Indicator
Students’ readiness for learning in the digital age
The share of students reporting that students get distracted by using digital resources in most or every school science lesson was among the smallest in Korea compared with other countries with available data. (6.7 %, rank 81/83 , 2025) Download Indicator
In Korea, the share of students reporting distraction from digital resources in science lessons, by principals' implementation of cell phone bans and subject-specific guidelines, was among the smallest across countries with available data. (5.8 %, rank 82/83 , 2025) Download Indicator
In Korea, the science performance of students spending more than 7 hours per day using digital devices for learning activities at school was among the highest across countries with available data, after accounting for student socio-economic status. (548 PISA Score, rank 3/86 , 2025) Download Indicator
Students' attitudes and beliefs regarding environmental issues
Korea has one of the largest shares of students believing in their own capacity to generate environmental change. (0.43 PISA Index, rank 2/87 , 2025) Download Indicator
In Korea, the gender difference in the share of students interested, to some or a large extent, in contributing to protecting the environment in their future jobs (boys - girls) was among the smallest in favor of girls across countries with available data. (-6.1 % points, rank 4/77 , 2025) Download Indicator
Students’ use of artificial intelligence for schoolwork
In Korea, the difference in the index of students' AI use for schoolwork between advantaged and disadvantaged schools was among the widest across countries with available data. (0.54 PISA Index, rank 2/63 , 2025) Download Indicator
The data table will display up to six selected countries.
General findings
- B-S-J-Z (China) and Singapore were the two highest-performing systems across science, mathematics and reading in PISA 2025. Additionally, Estonia, Japan, Korea, Macao (China), Chinese Taipei and the United Kingdom were among the top-10 performing education systems in all three domains.
- PISA 2025 recorded the lowest OECD-average performance observed so far in science, reading and mathematics. Reading declined after peaking around 2012, science declined more gradually over the past decade, and mathematics fell especially sharply after 2018.
- Around three-quarters of students demonstrated at least baseline proficiency in science: they pass from knowing some science to using science at a basic level.
- Socio-economic background remains strongly associated with student achievement, accounting for 12% of within-country variation in science performance.
- Students reported more teacher support in science lessons compared to 2015 in about half of countries/economies. Teacher support remains positively associated with science performance and learning attitudes.
- The provision of study help such as peer-to-peer tutoring is associated with higher science performance.
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- Socio-economic background remains strongly associated with student achievement, accounting for 12% of within-country variation in science performance.
- Gender differences in performance in mathematics and reading are still remarquable, as for all previous PISA studies. Boys still perform better than girls in mathematics by 13 PISA score points while girls outperform boys in reading by 30 PISA score points in 2025, on average accross OECD countries. In science, girls perform almost as well as boys by only 1 score point difference.
- Some education systems, such as B-S-J-Z (China), Canada, Estonia, Ireland, Japan, Korea and Macao (China), achieved both socio-economic fairness and strong performance.
- Between 2022 and 2025, narrowing of socio-economic gaps in performance largely reflected declines among advantaged students rather than improvements among disadvantaged students.
- Two out of three students perceive social mobility as achievable, rising to 75% or more in Portugal and Israel.
- Girls generally reported higher levels of curiosity, perseverance, help seeking, goal setting a growth mindset, while boys tend to report higher cognitive adaptability.
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- Some 69% of students reported that they like learning new things and 74% reported that they like to know how things work.
- While 61% of students reported finishing what they start and 60% reported putting in extra effort when work becomes challenging, 52% reported finishing tasks they have started even when they become boring.
- Girls generally reported higher levels of curiosity, perseverance, help seeking, goal setting a growth mindset, while boys tend to report higher cognitive adaptability.
- Between 2022 and 2025 students' self-reported curiosity and perseverance declined.
- Most students feel they belong at school (76%) and make friends easily (80%), and believe their peers like them (83%).
- While 67% of students believe that school has taught them things that could be useful in a job, 49% reported that school has done little to prepare them for adult life, 24% viewed school has been a waste of time.
- Bullying is associated with lower student performance and sense of belonging even after accounting for students’ and schools’ socio-economic profiles.
| Education policies: Student engagement and motivation | Education policies: Students' Well-Being | OECD Better Life Index |
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- On average, 79% of students use AI chatbots to help them to learn, including 26% weekly and 19% almost daily or more.
- The relationship between AI use and science performance is complex. Students who frequently use AI for learning and learn to assess the quality of AI-generated information at school achieve higher science performance than non- or infrequent users. However, advantaged students have greater access to these opportunities, raising concerns about an AI divide.
- Moderate use of digital devices for learning at school relates to higher science performance than no or heavy use. However, more than one hour of leisure use at school is linked to lower performance.
- Some 28% of students reported that their peers are distracted by the use of digital devices during most or every science lesson. Cell-phone bans or subject-specific guidelines relate to less distraction and less time spent on digital devices at school, but their relationship with performance remains unclear.
- Almost half of 15 year old students are in schools where the use of cell phones is not allowed on the school premises.
| Education policies: Student outcomes | Education policies: Learning environment | Education policies: Digital Divide |
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- About three in four students achieve at least baseline proficiency (Level 2) in environmental science.
- Higher-performing students tend to report stronger environmental awareness, personal agency and collective efficacy.
- Caring for the environment is widespread: 75% of students reported looking after the global environment is important to them; it is over 90% in B-S-J-Z (China), Indonesia, Korea and Cambodia.
- Most students believe collective action (82%) and individual action (81%) can address environmental challenges, though fewer know how to collaborate effectively (68%).
- On average, 28% of students never participated in any of the five environmental activities examined. Among them, 56% do not know anyone engaged in environmental actions, 49% believe others will address the problem and 47% feel their actions would not make a difference.
- On average, 62% of students are interested in contributing to environmental protection through their future careers, particularly girls, socio-economically advantaged students, higher performing students and students with pro-environmental attitudes.
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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.