Taiwan’s ranking is so strong, surpassing Japan and South Korea! The United States ranks 16th among the countries with the brightest students in the world

Which countries in the world have the best students? Based on the PISA 2025 test results released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the global student academic performance rankings were compiled. The East Asian education system has outstanding performance. The top six places are all occupied by East Asian countries. Among them, China ranks first among the four regions participating in the test with an average score of 578.7 points, Singapore ranks second with 552.7 points, and Taiwan ranks third with 531.3 points. It has surpassed Japan and South Korea and has become one of the education systems with the best academic performance of students in the world.

This ranking is based on the PISA 2025 test results announced by the OECD in September 2026, and evaluates 91 education systems around the world that participated in the test. The test subjects are 15-year-old students, and the assessment subjects include mathematics, science and reading. The foreign media "Visual Capitalist" uses the same weight to calculate the average score of the three subjects, and creates the overall ranking accordingly.

Judging from the rankings, the first place is from the four participating regions of Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang in China, with an average score of 578.7 points, including 612 points in mathematics and 597 points in science. Both subjects ranked first among all education systems, but the reading score was 527 points. Singapore ranked second with an average score of 552.7, with scores of 563 in mathematics, 560 in science, and 535 in reading. The reading score was the highest among all education systems participating in the ranking.

Taiwan ranked third with a score of 531.3, with scores of 546 in mathematics, 540 in science, and 508 in reading. Its performance in all three subjects entered the global advanced class. The fourth place is Macau, with an average score of 530.3, only 1 point behind Taiwan; the fifth place, Japan, has an average score of 522, and the sixth place, South Korea, has 516.3 points. In other words, the top six places in the world are all occupied by East Asian education systems, showing that East Asian students have obvious advantages in the fields of mathematics and science.

Other education systems in the top 10 are Estonia with 511.3 points, Hong Kong with 499.3 points, the United Kingdom with 497.7 points, and New Zealand with 495.3 points. Canada ranks 11th with 495 points, the United States ranks 16th with 485 points, and Malaysia ranks 62nd with 403 points.

Why do East Asian students perform so well? The report pointed out that East Asian education systems usually emphasize academic discipline, rigorous curriculum, teacher development and strong parental expectations.

Research on the academic performance of Chinese students also points out that cultural attitudes that value effort and achievement may be one of the factors affecting student performance. However, students' test scores should be attributed to the education system and socioeconomic conditions, rather than inherent ability differences between different ethnic groups.

It is worth noting that China’s first-place result this time only represents four relatively wealthy regions, Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and cannot be directly regarded as the average performance of students across China.

An analysis by the Brookings Institution pointed out that test scores of American students have continued to decline since the 2010s, and the learning disruption caused by the new crown epidemic has further exacerbated the problem. In addition to the learning losses caused by the epidemic, widening socioeconomic gaps, chronic absenteeism, and teacher shortages have also placed additional pressure on the North American education system.