Teenagers Are Reading Worse Than 20 Years Ago
Saturday, 2026/09/12216 words3 minutes150 reads
PISA 2025 tracks 15-year-olds' school performance. The assessment involved 760,000 students in 91 countries and economies. The OECD said average reading and mathematics scores across OECD countries were the lowest it has recorded.
Reuters reported that PISA's reading index fell from 501 in 2012 to 466 in 2025. Across OECD countries, reading scores fell by 28 points between 2015 and 2025, which the OECD describes as roughly one and a half years of learning. The report also found strong results in East Asia, including Chinese jurisdictions, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Chinese Taipei.
The evidence should be read carefully. The OECD says heavier screen use, less reading for pleasure and hasty reading have gone hand in hand with weaker outcomes. It also reports that students surrounded by digital distraction tend to perform less well. These patterns do not establish cause and effect: a score can be shaped by many school, family and social factors.
Family support is one related factor. Students reported lower family support in 2025 than in 2022 in almost all systems with data. OECD data link family support with higher science performance, but the report also says the direction of causation cannot be established. The practical question is not whether all technology is harmful, but how students can protect time for focused, sustained reading.
