Finland’s PISA scores have fallen again in reading, mathematics and science, extending a long decline in the performance of the country’s 15-year-olds, even as Finnish pupils continue to score above the OECD average in all three subjects.
The results, published by the OECD on Tuesday, are based on the 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment, which examined the skills of more than 760,000 students in 91 countries and economies. Finland was represented by 7,668 pupils from 235 schools, according to the Ministry of Education and Culture.
Reading has become one of the clearest areas of concern. Finland’s average score fell to 474 points, a 16-point drop from 2022. The country was tied with Italy at around 17th place in the international comparison.
More than one in four Finnish pupils now perform below the basic proficiency level in reading. The situation is considerably worse among boys, with about one in three falling into the low-performing group.
The change becomes even more striking when measured over a longer period. Finland’s average reading score was 546 points in 2006, when only 7 per cent of pupils were considered weak readers. The latest figures show how far performance has moved from the levels that once placed Finland among the world’s best-performing education systems.
Mathematics has followed a similar downward path. Finland ranked around 22nd to 23rd, depending on the final comparison used, while still remaining slightly above the OECD average. Nearly one in three Finnish pupils are now classified as low performers in mathematics.
The decline is also visible at the top end. In 2003, more than 23 per cent of Finnish pupils reached the highest proficiency levels in mathematics. By 2025, that proportion had fallen to 7 per cent, below the OECD average.
Science remains the strongest part of Finland’s PISA results, although it too has weakened. Finnish pupils recorded an average score of 504 points, compared with 511 in 2022, placing Finland 12th among participating countries and economies. The latest fall was not statistically significant, but the longer-term trend continues to point downward.
Finland nevertheless remained the highest-performing Nordic country in science. Estonia performed better than Finland across several areas and continued to rank among Europe’s strongest education systems, while several East Asian countries and regions, including Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Chinese Taipei and Chinese jurisdictions, occupied many of the highest positions.
The Finnish results also need to be viewed against a broader international decline. The OECD found that learning outcomes have stalled or deteriorated in many countries following the major fall recorded in 2022. Across OECD member countries, average mathematics scores dropped by 22 points between 2015 and 2025, while reading scores fell by 28 points.
The figures also reveal a more complicated picture of educational inequality. Socio-economic gaps narrowed in some countries, but the OECD found that this was partly because pupils from wealthier backgrounds performed worse, rather than because disadvantaged pupils made significant gains.
Finland showed a similar pattern.
Another issue emerging from the Finnish results concerns how pupils respond when schoolwork becomes difficult. Only 41 per cent of Finnish students said they try harder when they encounter challenging schoolwork. That was the lowest proportion recorded among the countries and economies included in the comparison.
At the same time, Finnish pupils continued to report relatively high confidence in their own abilities, suggesting that confidence itself may not explain the decline in academic performance.
The 2025 assessment also looked more closely at how students learn in digital environments. Finnish pupils performed above the OECD average in this area. The results suggest, however, that the amount and manner of digital technology use matter. Moderate use of digital tools for learning was associated with stronger science performance, while excessive use and distraction in classrooms were associated with weaker results.
For Finland, the latest PISA scores add to an increasingly difficult discussion about the direction of the country’s education system. The country remains above the OECD average and continues to perform strongly in science, but the long-term deterioration in reading and mathematics is becoming harder to dismiss as a temporary fluctuation.
Finland also participated for the first time in the optional PISA assessment of English as a foreign language. Those results are expected to be published in spring 2027 and will provide another measure of how Finnish pupils are performing in an area that has become increasingly important in education and everyday life.
The latest assessment does not erase Finland’s strengths, but it does underline the scale of the challenge facing its schools. A system once widely recognised for exceptional results is now dealing with years of declining performance, particularly in the basic skills that underpin learning across almost every subject.
