PISA 2025: Teen Reading Skills Slip as Digital Habits Rise

The latest PISA results, released by the OECD, reveal a concerning trend in teenage literacy. Based on assessments of over 760,000 students across 91 countries and economies, the 2025 data shows that reading performance has declined more sharply than in mathematics or science.

Across OECD countries, the average reading score fell by 28 points between 2015 and 2025, from 489 to 461. This is the steepest drop among the three core subjects, with mathematics down 22 points and science declining more modestly. The decline is also visible over a shorter timeframe: reading scores fell by 25 points between 2018 and 2025, equivalent to more than a year of learning.

The share of 15-year-olds performing below the basic proficiency level (Level 2) in reading increased by 10 percentage points over the decade, while the proportion of top performers shrank by two percentage points. Students are showing particular difficulty with longer texts and higher-order skills such as evaluating, reflecting, and integrating information.

The OECD notes that the decline cannot be attributed to a single cause and, in many countries, predates the COVID-19 pandemic. Increased digitalisation, longer screen time, and a drop in reading for enjoyment have coincided with weaker literacy outcomes.

A notable warning sign is the rise of "hasty readers"—students who read quickly but without sufficient accuracy or comprehension. Across 35 OECD countries, the share of accurate and fluent readers fell by seven percentage points between 2018 and 2025, while hasty readers increased from 6.6% to 11.4%.

These findings raise a critical question: as young people gain faster access to information, are they losing the ability to read deeply, assess evidence, and think critically? The results suggest that while digital tools may offer speed, they may also be eroding the sustained focus required for demanding reading tasks.