OECD PISA 2025 · released 8 September 2026

Portugal’s gains have slipped away

Portugal’s 2025 scores sit close to its early PISA results, after a decade of decline. Reading and mathematics fell sharply since 2022. Science held broadly steady.

Published 8 Sep 202691 countries and economiesMore than 760,000 students
What does the new result say? Portugal remains near the OECD average and in the upper third of participating systems. The more consequential change is inside the distribution: the share below Level 2 rose in all three subjects since 2015, while the share at Level 5 or above fell.

01 · The long view

Portugal improved, then gave back much of the gain

The line shows Portugal against the OECD average in every available cycle. The score is a scale score for 15-year-olds, not a percentage correct. Reading starts in 2000, mathematics in 2003 and science in 2006.

Subject

Science scores over time

Portugal and OECD average · PISA scale points

02 · The comparison

Portugal sits in the upper third of the 2025 tables

The ranking gives orientation. Small differences should not be read as meaningful without uncertainty intervals. Use the subject buttons to see the top systems and Portugal’s position on the same scale.

Subject

Science: the top systems and Portugal

Top 10 participating systems plus Portugal · 2025 score points

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03 · The recent turn

The latest fall was widespread, with a few exceptions

This view compares 2022 with 2025. It shows the six largest declines and six largest gains in each subject, keeping Portugal and the comparable 35-system OECD benchmark in view. That is a focused movement view, not a complete causal ranking.

Subject

Science: change since 2022

Change in PISA score points · 2022–2025

04 · The distribution

More students are below the basic benchmark

Mean scores compress a distribution into one number. These bars show how the share below Level 2 and the share at Level 5 or above changed between 2015 and 2025. The comparison is in percentage points.

Portugal’s proficiency profile shifted down

Portugal · percentage of students · 2015 and 2025

Below Level 2 is the OECD’s basic proficiency threshold. Level 5 or above denotes high-performing students.

SubjectBelow L2, 2015Below L2, 2025ChangeLevel 5+, 2025

05 · Inside Portugal

The national average hides a large socio-economic gap

Science gap

92score points between the top and bottom socio-economic quartiles

That gap is larger than the difference between many countries near Portugal in the international table.

Explained by status

13%of variation in Portuguese science performance

The OECD estimate describes an association with socio-economic status. It does not identify a single cause.

How to read it

National rankings describe system-level averages. They do not show how evenly results are distributed inside a country.

06 · Classroom context

Purpose and intensity matter in the device data

The digital measures are self-reported. The adjusted curves account for socio-economic status, yet they remain associations. They cannot tell us that a device, an app or AI caused a score to rise or fall.

Learning use has a middle range

Adjusted science score by reported learning-device use at school

The curve is highest in the middle categories. It is a descriptive adjusted association, not a recommended dose.

Portugal compared with the OECD

Portugal reports fewer learning-device hours at school, slightly more leisure hours, and more classroom distraction than the OECD average.

AI is already part of schoolwork

Share of students reporting selected weekly uses · Portugal and OECD average

The dashboard describes reported use. It does not measure whether the use improved learning.