PISA 2025 Results Released: India Absent as China's B-S-J-Z Tops Maths
PISA 2025 results cover 91 countries and economies, but India did not participate, leaving it out of the mathematics rankings topped by China's B-S-J-Z region.
The latest round of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has been published, offering a global snapshot of how 15-year-old students performed in mathematics, reading and science. More than 7.6 lakh students from 91 countries and economies took part in the 2025 assessment.
India, however, is not among them. The country did not participate in PISA 2025, and therefore has no mathematics score or ranking in the latest results. Its absence from the list does not reflect a low score; it simply means Indian students were not assessed this cycle.
What PISA Measures
PISA is conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It tests 15-year-olds in mathematics, reading and science, with an emphasis on how students apply their knowledge and skills to real-life situations rather than on rote recall alone.
The OECD's participant records list India's most recent participation as 2009, when students from Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh took part. Because India sat out the 2025 round, its students' performance cannot be compared with the systems included in the new rankings.
China's B-S-J-Z Region Leads in Maths
Among those who took part, the Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang (B-S-J-Z) group of China recorded the highest average mathematics score at 612 points. Singapore followed with 563 points. The average across OECD countries stood at 463 points.
Several other Asian education systems, including Japan, South Korea, Macao and Chinese Taipei, also posted strong results.
A Broader Decline in Maths
The 2025 results point to a longer-term slide in mathematics performance across OECD countries. The average maths score dropped from 485 points in 2015 to 463 points in 2025 — a 22-point fall that the OECD describes as equivalent to slightly more than a year of learning. Between 2022 and 2025 alone, the average declined by 9 points.
What the Results Mean for India
Since India did not take part, the PISA 2025 findings cannot indicate where the country would have ranked. What they do offer is an international picture of student achievement in mathematics and other core subjects, and a reference point for educators and students looking at how different systems are tackling learning outcomes.