Britain today · Education

Britain vs Europe: education and youth outcomes

Name: Early leavers from education and training, 18 to 24, 2025
Creator: Eurostat
Published: 2026-06-11
License: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/about-us/policies/copyright

Compared with the rest of Europe, how well is each UK education system actually doing — at school, and when young people leave it?

View shareable visual summaries Comparability grades Reading Maths Absence Leaving school Writing Method

Education is devolved, so there is no such thing as “the British school system”. There are four, and on the one assessment that measures all of them the same way they do not perform alike. This page puts each of them into the European field separately, and is equally explicit about the measures where no European league table can honestly be drawn at all.

Where each system sits

Official statisticRanges computed from published standard errors

Who is counted England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, each measured separately. PISA tests a sample of 15-year-olds in each system — not a whole year group, not every pupil, and not school leavers. A PISA mean is an estimate of how 15-year-olds in that system would have scored, published with the standard error that says how precisely it is known.

This page carries six measures across one frame — every EU member state, every EFTA state, and the four systems of the United Kingdom. Three come from PISA 2022 and are ranked across 33 systems; three come from Eurostat’s harmonised Labour Force Survey.

England
Reading, PISA 2022
3rd–7th of 33496.4
Mathematics, PISA 2022
3rd–10th of 33492.2
Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022
23rd of 3325.7%
Employment at 20 to 24, 2025
12th of 3466.8%
Northern Ireland
Reading, PISA 2022
4th–17th of 33485.2
Mathematics, PISA 2022
14th–24th of 33475.1
Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022
28th–29th of 3333.1%
Employment at 20 to 24, 2025
5th of 3471.2%
Scotland
Reading, PISA 2022
3rd–10th of 33492.8
Mathematics, PISA 2022
15th–28th of 33470.6
Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022
24th–27th of 3328.9%
Employment at 20 to 24, 2025
10th of 3468.4%
Wales
Reading, PISA 2022
20th–26th of 33465.6
Mathematics, PISA 2022
17th–29th of 33465.7
Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022
29th–30th of 3337.4%
Employment at 20 to 24, 2025
14th of 3461.4%

Cards are in alphabetical order. They are not ordered by score: ordering four systems by their results would be an overall ranking assembled by the page layout, which is the thing this page refuses to do. Each range links to that system’s row in the table it came from.

How comparable is each measure?

UK Facts analytical conventionA UK Facts grading, applied to every measure on this page

Cross-country comparison is only as good as the measurement behind it, and most published comparison mixes measures that were taken the same way with measures that were not. Every measure on this page carries a grade, the grade decides whether it may be ranked, and the grade appears on the table before any number does.

Grade ASame instrumentRanked on this page: Every country was measured by one assessment or survey, run to one methodology, at one time. Differences between countries are differences in what was measured, not in how it was measured. These can be ranked.
Grade BSame definition, different collectorsRanked on this page: Countries follow a shared definition, but the figures are produced by different statistical agencies rather than one collection. A UK figure produced by the Office for National Statistics to broadly the same definition as a Eurostat series is Grade B. These can be ranked, with the caveat printed on the table itself rather than hidden in a footnote.
Grade CContext onlyNever ranked on this page: The definitions or the legal categories differ materially between countries — the thing being counted is not the same thing. These are never ranked and never numbered. They are shown as each country’s own figure, on its own terms, with an explanation of why no league table exists.

The refusals are content, not gaps

Two of the sections on this page publish no league table. That is not because the research ran out. It is because the thing being counted is not the same thing in each country, and a table would assert a comparability that does not exist. Those sections say what each country actually counts, and why the comparison cannot be made.

Reading

Official statistic

Who is counted Whole European field, UK systems separately. PISA tests a sample of 15-year-olds in each system — not a whole year group, not every pupil, and not school leavers. A PISA mean is an estimate of how 15-year-olds in that system would have scored, published with the standard error that says how precisely it is known.

England scored 496.4 on Reading, PISA 2022, placing it 3rd–7th of 33 European systems in this table. Its score cannot be told apart statistically from 4 of them: Denmark, Finland, Poland, Scotland.

Wales scored 465.6 on Reading, PISA 2022, placing it 20th–26th of 33 European systems in this table. Its score cannot be told apart statistically from 6 of them: France, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Slovenia.

Grade ASame instrumentPISA 2022, assessed 2022

Reading, PISA 2022

Mean score of 15-year-olds on the PISA reading assessment, on the OECD’s scale, with the standard error the OECD publishes alongside it.

Coverage: Every European Union member state, every EFTA state, and the four education systems of the United Kingdom — 35 entries, no subset. Luxembourg and Liechtenstein did not take part in this cycle and appear as rows stating that, rather than being dropped from the field.
Ordering: Ordered from the highest mean score. A higher score is not read here as a better education system — it is a higher mean on one test of one age group.

The top of the table, and the UK’s systems

A short view of a long table. Every one of the 33 rows is in the full table below.

Ireland516.01st–2nd of 33
Estonia511.01st–2nd of 33
England496.43rd–7th of 33
Scotland492.83rd–10th of 33
Northern Ireland485.24th–17th of 33
Wales465.620th–26th of 33

Reading, PISA 2022. Every European Union member state, every EFTA state, and the four education systems of the United Kingdom — 35 entries, no subset. Luxembourg and Liechtenstein did not take part in this cycle and appear as rows stating that, rather than being dropped from the field. Ordered from the highest mean score. A higher score is not read here as a better education system — it is a higher mean on one test of one age group.
Rank range	Country or system	PISA score points	± S.E.
1st–2nd of 33	IrelandSampling caveat: * Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).	516.0	2.33
1st–2nd of 33	Estonia	511.0	2.36
3rd–7th of 33	EnglandSampling caveat: * Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).	496.4	2.78
England sits 3rd–7th of 33. Not statistically distinguishable from Denmark, Finland, Poland, Scotland.
3rd–10th of 33	ScotlandSampling caveat: * Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).	492.8	3.40
Scotland sits 3rd–10th of 33. Not statistically distinguishable from Czechia, Denmark, England, Finland, Northern Ireland, Poland, Sweden.
3rd–10th of 33	Finland	490.2	2.26
3rd–13th of 33	DenmarkSampling caveat: * Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).	488.8	2.58
3rd–13th of 33	Poland	488.7	2.74
4th–13th of 33	Czechia	488.6	2.25
4th–14th of 33	Sweden	487.0	2.49
4th–17th of 33	Northern IrelandSampling caveat: * Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).	485.2	3.38
Northern Ireland sits 4th–17th of 33. Not statistically distinguishable from Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland.
6th–17th of 33	Switzerland	483.3	2.26
6th–20th of 33	Italy	481.6	2.68
8th–22nd of 33	Austria	480.4	2.67
6th–23rd of 33	Germany	479.8	3.61
10th–23rd of 33	Belgium	478.9	2.52
10th–23rd of 33	Portugal	476.6	2.66
10th–23rd of 33	Norway	476.5	2.54
12th–23rd of 33	Croatia	475.5	2.44
12th–25th of 33	LatviaSampling caveat: * Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).	474.6	2.46
13th–23rd of 33	Spain	474.3	1.65
12th–25th of 33	France	473.9	3.07
13th–25th of 33	Hungary	473.0	2.83
14th–25th of 33	Lithuania	471.8	2.21
21st–25th of 33	Slovenia	468.5	1.64
20th–26th of 33	WalesSampling caveat: * Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).	465.6	3.74
Wales sits 20th–26th of 33. Not statistically distinguishable from France, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Slovenia.
25th–26th of 33	NetherlandsSampling caveat: * Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).	459.2	4.28
27th–28th of 33	Slovakia	446.9	3.10
27th–28th of 33	Malta	445.3	1.90
29th–30th of 33	Greece	438.4	2.83
29th–31st of 33	Iceland	435.9	2.06
30th–31st of 33	Romania	428.5	3.98
32nd of 33	Bulgaria	404.3	3.40
33rd of 33	Cyprus	381.1	1.16
Not ranked	OECD average	475.6	0.45

In the frame, absent from the source

Luxembourg — Luxembourg did not take part in the PISA 2022 assessment.
Liechtenstein — Liechtenstein did not take part in the PISA 2022 assessment.

Why ranks are ranges. Each figure is an estimate with a published standard error, so most neighbours in this table cannot be told apart statistically. The range is every position the estimate can support. A row further down the table can have a wider range than one above it, because a less precisely measured estimate is compatible with more positions.

Note: Values that are statistically significant are indicated in bold (see Annex A3).

PISA also publishes a single United Kingdom mean. It is not on these tables. It is an average of the same pupils already counted in the four nation rows, so placing it alongside them would rank the field against part of itself. The UK-wide figures are given in the methodology section instead.

Source: PISA 2022 Results, Volumes I and II ↗ OECD. OECD Terms and Conditions — free reuse with attribution. Published 2023-12-05. Retrieved 2026-08-17.

View as table

Country or system	PISA score points	Standard error	Rank range	Caveats
Ireland	516.0	2.33	1st–2nd of 33	* Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).
Estonia	511.0	2.36	1st–2nd of 33
England	496.4	2.78	3rd–7th of 33	* Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).
Scotland	492.8	3.40	3rd–10th of 33	* Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).
Finland	490.2	2.26	3rd–10th of 33
Denmark	488.8	2.58	3rd–13th of 33	* Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).
Poland	488.7	2.74	3rd–13th of 33
Czechia	488.6	2.25	4th–13th of 33
Sweden	487.0	2.49	4th–14th of 33
Northern Ireland	485.2	3.38	4th–17th of 33	* Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).
Switzerland	483.3	2.26	6th–17th of 33
Italy	481.6	2.68	6th–20th of 33
Austria	480.4	2.67	8th–22nd of 33
Germany	479.8	3.61	6th–23rd of 33
Belgium	478.9	2.52	10th–23rd of 33
Portugal	476.6	2.66	10th–23rd of 33
Norway	476.5	2.54	10th–23rd of 33
Croatia	475.5	2.44	12th–23rd of 33
Latvia	474.6	2.46	12th–25th of 33	* Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).
Spain	474.3	1.65	13th–23rd of 33
France	473.9	3.07	12th–25th of 33
Hungary	473.0	2.83	13th–25th of 33
Lithuania	471.8	2.21	14th–25th of 33
Slovenia	468.5	1.64	21st–25th of 33
Wales	465.6	3.74	20th–26th of 33	* Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).
Netherlands	459.2	4.28	25th–26th of 33	* Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).
Slovakia	446.9	3.10	27th–28th of 33
Malta	445.3	1.90	27th–28th of 33
Greece	438.4	2.83	29th–30th of 33
Iceland	435.9	2.06	29th–31st of 33
Romania	428.5	3.98	30th–31st of 33
Bulgaria	404.3	3.40	32nd of 33
Cyprus	381.1	1.16	33rd of 33
Luxembourg	No value	—	Not ranked	Luxembourg did not take part in the PISA 2022 assessment.
Liechtenstein	No value	—	Not ranked	Liechtenstein did not take part in the PISA 2022 assessment.

The four systems are further apart than most pairs of countries

On Reading, PISA 2022, the four UK systems run from England at 496.4 to Wales at 465.6 — a spread of 30.8 score points.

The OECD average on Reading, PISA 2022 is 475.6. England, Scotland and Northern Ireland were above it. Wales was at or below it.

Mathematics

Official statistic

England scored 492.2 on Mathematics, PISA 2022, placing it 3rd–10th of 33 European systems in this table. Its score cannot be told apart statistically from 7 of them: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland.

Scotland scored 470.6 on Mathematics, PISA 2022, placing it 15th–28th of 33 European systems in this table. Its score cannot be told apart statistically from 13 of them: Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Northern Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Wales.

Grade ASame instrumentPISA 2022, assessed 2022

Mathematics, PISA 2022

Mean score of 15-year-olds on the PISA mathematics assessment, on the OECD’s scale, with the standard error the OECD publishes alongside it.

Coverage: Every European Union member state, every EFTA state, and the four education systems of the United Kingdom — 35 entries, no subset. Luxembourg and Liechtenstein did not take part in this cycle and appear as rows stating that, rather than being dropped from the field.
Ordering: Ordered from the highest mean score. A higher score is not read here as a better education system — it is a higher mean on one test of one age group.

The top of the table, and the UK’s systems

A short view of a long table. Every one of the 33 rows is in the full table below.

Estonia509.91st–2nd of 33
Switzerland508.01st–2nd of 33
Netherlands492.73rd–12th of 33
England492.23rd–10th of 33
Northern Ireland475.114th–24th of 33
Scotland470.615th–28th of 33
Wales465.717th–29th of 33

Mathematics, PISA 2022. Every European Union member state, every EFTA state, and the four education systems of the United Kingdom — 35 entries, no subset. Luxembourg and Liechtenstein did not take part in this cycle and appear as rows stating that, rather than being dropped from the field. Ordered from the highest mean score. A higher score is not read here as a better education system — it is a higher mean on one test of one age group.
Rank range	Country or system	PISA score points	± S.E.
1st–2nd of 33	Estonia	509.9	1.98
1st–2nd of 33	Switzerland	508.0	2.14
3rd–12th of 33	NetherlandsSampling caveat: * Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).	492.7	3.77
3rd–10th of 33	EnglandSampling caveat: * Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).	492.2	2.59
England sits 3rd–10th of 33. Not statistically distinguishable from Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland.
3rd–10th of 33	IrelandSampling caveat: * Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).	491.6	2.02
3rd–12th of 33	Belgium	489.5	2.20
3rd–12th of 33	DenmarkSampling caveat: * Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).	489.3	1.95
3rd–13th of 33	Poland	489.0	2.27
3rd–14th of 33	Austria	487.3	2.34
3rd–14th of 33	Czechia	487.0	2.09
5th–14th of 33	Slovenia	484.5	1.24
5th–14th of 33	Finland	484.1	1.86
8th–14th of 33	LatviaSampling caveat: * Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).	483.2	2.03
9th–16th of 33	Sweden	481.8	2.06
15th–23rd of 33	Lithuania	475.1	1.84
14th–24th of 33	Northern IrelandSampling caveat: * Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).	475.1	2.97
Northern Ireland sits 14th–24th of 33. Not statistically distinguishable from France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Sweden.
14th–25th of 33	Germany	474.8	3.06
15th–25th of 33	France	473.9	2.49
15th–24th of 33	Spain	473.1	1.50
15th–25th of 33	Hungary	472.8	2.51
15th–27th of 33	Portugal	471.9	2.35
15th–28th of 33	Italy	471.3	3.09
15th–28th of 33	ScotlandSampling caveat: * Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).	470.6	2.63
Scotland sits 15th–28th of 33. Not statistically distinguishable from Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Northern Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Wales.
16th–28th of 33	Norway	468.4	2.06
22nd–28th of 33	Malta	466.0	1.58
17th–29th of 33	WalesSampling caveat: * Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).	465.7	3.17
Wales sits 17th–29th of 33. Not statistically distinguishable from Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain.
22nd–29th of 33	Slovakia	464.0	2.89
24th–29th of 33	Croatia	463.1	2.38
26th–29th of 33	Iceland	458.9	1.58
30th–31st of 33	Greece	430.1	2.34
30th–31st of 33	Romania	427.8	4.00
32nd–33rd of 33	Cyprus	418.3	1.18
32nd–33rd of 33	Bulgaria	417.3	3.30
Not ranked	OECD average	472.4	0.40

In the frame, absent from the source

Luxembourg — Luxembourg did not take part in the PISA 2022 assessment.
Liechtenstein — Liechtenstein did not take part in the PISA 2022 assessment.

Note: Values that are statistically significant are indicated in bold (see Annex A3).

Source: PISA 2022 Results, Volumes I and II ↗ OECD. OECD Terms and Conditions — free reuse with attribution. Published 2023-12-05. Retrieved 2026-08-17.

View as table

Country or system	PISA score points	Standard error	Rank range	Caveats
Estonia	509.9	1.98	1st–2nd of 33
Switzerland	508.0	2.14	1st–2nd of 33
Netherlands	492.7	3.77	3rd–12th of 33	* Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).
England	492.2	2.59	3rd–10th of 33	* Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).
Ireland	491.6	2.02	3rd–10th of 33	* Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).
Belgium	489.5	2.20	3rd–12th of 33
Denmark	489.3	1.95	3rd–12th of 33	* Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).
Poland	489.0	2.27	3rd–13th of 33
Austria	487.3	2.34	3rd–14th of 33
Czechia	487.0	2.09	3rd–14th of 33
Slovenia	484.5	1.24	5th–14th of 33
Finland	484.1	1.86	5th–14th of 33
Latvia	483.2	2.03	8th–14th of 33	* Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).
Sweden	481.8	2.06	9th–16th of 33
Lithuania	475.1	1.84	15th–23rd of 33
Northern Ireland	475.1	2.97	14th–24th of 33	* Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).
Germany	474.8	3.06	14th–25th of 33
France	473.9	2.49	15th–25th of 33
Spain	473.1	1.50	15th–24th of 33
Hungary	472.8	2.51	15th–25th of 33
Portugal	471.9	2.35	15th–27th of 33
Italy	471.3	3.09	15th–28th of 33
Scotland	470.6	2.63	15th–28th of 33	* Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).
Norway	468.4	2.06	16th–28th of 33
Malta	466.0	1.58	22nd–28th of 33
Wales	465.7	3.17	17th–29th of 33	* Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).
Slovakia	464.0	2.89	22nd–29th of 33
Croatia	463.1	2.38	24th–29th of 33
Iceland	458.9	1.58	26th–29th of 33
Greece	430.1	2.34	30th–31st of 33
Romania	427.8	4.00	30th–31st of 33
Cyprus	418.3	1.18	32nd–33rd of 33
Bulgaria	417.3	3.30	32nd–33rd of 33
Luxembourg	No value	—	Not ranked	Luxembourg did not take part in the PISA 2022 assessment.
Liechtenstein	No value	—	Not ranked	Liechtenstein did not take part in the PISA 2022 assessment.

The four systems are not in the same order on both tables

The four UK systems do not fall in the same order on both measures. On reading the order is England, then Scotland, then Northern Ireland, then Wales; on mathematics it is England, then Northern Ireland, then Scotland, then Wales. Two measures of the same pupils in the same assessment already disagree about the ordering, which is the plainest available argument against combining measures into one score.

The OECD average on Mathematics, PISA 2022 is 472.4. England and Northern Ireland were above it. Scotland and Wales were at or below it.

Missing school

Official statisticWhat pupils reported, not what schools recorded

This is not the attendance register, and it is not trying to be

This is not a national attendance statistic and cannot be compared with one. It is what 15-year-olds themselves reported, in a single question asked in identical terms in every participating country, about the two weeks before they sat the assessment. England’s administrative absence data — sessions missed, authorised and unauthorised, recorded by schools — counts a different thing over a different period on a different population, and no country’s register data appears on this table. The comparison works precisely because it does not use any of them.

England recorded 25.7% on Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022, placing it 23rd of 33 European systems in this table. Its figure is statistically distinguishable from every other entry in the table.

Wales recorded 37.4% on Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022, placing it 29th–30th of 33 European systems in this table. Its figure cannot be told apart statistically from one of them, Malta.

Grade ASame instrumentPISA 2022, assessed 2022

Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022

Percentage of 15-year-olds who reported skipping at least one whole day of school in the two weeks before they sat the PISA assessment.

Coverage: Every European Union member state, every EFTA state, and the four education systems of the United Kingdom — 35 entries, no subset. Luxembourg and Liechtenstein did not take part in this cycle and appear as rows stating that, rather than being dropped from the field.
Ordering: Ordered from the smallest reported share upwards. The order says which systems’ pupils reported skipping days least often; it is not a ranking of attendance policy, enforcement or recording.

The top of the table, and the UK’s systems

A short view of a long table. Every one of the 33 rows is in the full table below.

Portugal5.0%1st–3rd of 33
Netherlands5.6%1st–4th of 33
Hungary5.7%1st–4th of 33
England25.7%23rd of 33
Scotland28.9%24th–27th of 33
Northern Ireland33.1%28th–29th of 33
Wales37.4%29th–30th of 33

Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022. Every European Union member state, every EFTA state, and the four education systems of the United Kingdom — 35 entries, no subset. Luxembourg and Liechtenstein did not take part in this cycle and appear as rows stating that, rather than being dropped from the field. Ordered from the smallest reported share upwards. The order says which systems’ pupils reported skipping days least often; it is not a ranking of attendance policy, enforcement or recording.
Rank range	Country or system	% of 15-year-olds	± S.E.
1st–3rd of 33	Portugal	5.0%	0.35
1st–4th of 33	NetherlandsSampling caveat: OECD: one or more PISA sampling standards were not met.	5.6%	0.39
1st–4th of 33	Hungary	5.7%	0.40
2nd–6th of 33	Iceland	6.8%	0.47
4th–6th of 33	Czechia	6.9%	0.34
4th–8th of 33	Slovakia	7.8%	0.47
6th–8th of 33	Belgium	8.3%	0.36
6th–10th of 33	Croatia	8.7%	0.44
8th–10th of 33	Sweden	9.5%	0.43
8th–11th of 33	Switzerland	9.9%	0.48
10th–14th of 33	Germany	11.4%	0.59
11th–15th of 33	Bulgaria	11.9%	0.63
11th–15th of 33	Slovenia	12.6%	0.44
11th–17th of 33	France	12.8%	0.51
12th–17th of 33	Austria	12.9%	0.46
14th–17th of 33	Norway	13.9%	0.46
14th–17th of 33	Finland	14.2%	0.51
18th–20th of 33	Lithuania	17.7%	0.59
18th–22nd of 33	Estonia	19.2%	0.70
18th–22nd of 33	LatviaSampling caveat: OECD: one or more PISA sampling standards were not met.	19.3%	0.67
19th–22nd of 33	Cyprus	19.5%	0.49
19th–22nd of 33	DenmarkSampling caveat: OECD: one or more PISA sampling standards were not met.	20.4%	0.61
23rd of 33	EnglandSampling caveat: OECD: one or more PISA sampling standards were not met.	25.7%	0.85
England sits 23rd of 33. Its score is statistically distinguishable from every other entry in this table.
24th–27th of 33	Spain	28.3%	0.52
24th–27th of 33	Greece	28.4%	0.77
24th–27th of 33	ScotlandSampling caveat: OECD: one or more PISA sampling standards were not met.	28.9%	1.03
Scotland sits 24th–27th of 33. Not statistically distinguishable from Greece, Poland, Spain.
24th–27th of 33	Poland	29.4%	1.04
28th–29th of 33	Northern IrelandSampling caveat: OECD: one or more PISA sampling standards were not met.	33.1%	1.19
Northern Ireland sits 28th–29th of 33. Not statistically distinguishable from Malta.
28th–30th of 33	Malta	34.6%	0.89
29th–30th of 33	WalesSampling caveat: OECD: one or more PISA sampling standards were not met.	37.4%	1.38
Wales sits 29th–30th of 33. Not statistically distinguishable from Malta.
31st of 33	IrelandSampling caveat: OECD: one or more PISA sampling standards were not met.	41.1%	0.77
32nd of 33	Romania	46.3%	0.94
33rd of 33	Italy	60.8%	0.84
Not ranked	OECD average	19.8%	0.10

In the frame, absent from the source

Luxembourg — Luxembourg did not take part in the PISA 2022 assessment.
Liechtenstein — Liechtenstein did not take part in the PISA 2022 assessment.

The OECD publishes the share of students who reported NEVER skipping a whole day of school in those two weeks. This table reports the remainder — those who reported skipping at least one whole day — because that is the quantity the question is usually asked about. The four published response categories sum to exactly 100 in the source, which the pipeline asserts on every row, and the standard error of the remainder is the standard error the OECD published, unchanged: subtracting from a fixed total does not alter how precisely an estimate is known. Nothing is estimated by this step.

Source: PISA 2022 Results, Volumes I and II ↗ OECD. OECD Terms and Conditions — free reuse with attribution. Published 2023-12-05. Retrieved 2026-08-17.

View as table

Country or system	% of 15-year-olds	Standard error	Rank range	Caveats
Portugal	5.0%	0.35	1st–3rd of 33
Netherlands	5.6%	0.39	1st–4th of 33	OECD: one or more PISA sampling standards were not met.
Hungary	5.7%	0.40	1st–4th of 33
Iceland	6.8%	0.47	2nd–6th of 33
Czechia	6.9%	0.34	4th–6th of 33
Slovakia	7.8%	0.47	4th–8th of 33
Belgium	8.3%	0.36	6th–8th of 33
Croatia	8.7%	0.44	6th–10th of 33
Sweden	9.5%	0.43	8th–10th of 33
Switzerland	9.9%	0.48	8th–11th of 33
Germany	11.4%	0.59	10th–14th of 33
Bulgaria	11.9%	0.63	11th–15th of 33
Slovenia	12.6%	0.44	11th–15th of 33
France	12.8%	0.51	11th–17th of 33
Austria	12.9%	0.46	12th–17th of 33
Norway	13.9%	0.46	14th–17th of 33
Finland	14.2%	0.51	14th–17th of 33
Lithuania	17.7%	0.59	18th–20th of 33
Estonia	19.2%	0.70	18th–22nd of 33
Latvia	19.3%	0.67	18th–22nd of 33	OECD: one or more PISA sampling standards were not met.
Cyprus	19.5%	0.49	19th–22nd of 33
Denmark	20.4%	0.61	19th–22nd of 33	OECD: one or more PISA sampling standards were not met.
England	25.7%	0.85	23rd of 33	OECD: one or more PISA sampling standards were not met.
Spain	28.3%	0.52	24th–27th of 33
Greece	28.4%	0.77	24th–27th of 33
Scotland	28.9%	1.03	24th–27th of 33	OECD: one or more PISA sampling standards were not met.
Poland	29.4%	1.04	24th–27th of 33
Northern Ireland	33.1%	1.19	28th–29th of 33	OECD: one or more PISA sampling standards were not met.
Malta	34.6%	0.89	28th–30th of 33
Wales	37.4%	1.38	29th–30th of 33	OECD: one or more PISA sampling standards were not met.
Ireland	41.1%	0.77	31st of 33	OECD: one or more PISA sampling standards were not met.
Romania	46.3%	0.94	32nd of 33
Italy	60.8%	0.84	33rd of 33
Luxembourg	No value	—	Not ranked	Luxembourg did not take part in the PISA 2022 assessment.
Liechtenstein	No value	—	Not ranked	Liechtenstein did not take part in the PISA 2022 assessment.

Every UK system is above the OECD average on this measure

The OECD average on Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022 is 19.8%. England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales were above it. No UK system was at or below it. On Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022, the four UK systems run from England at 25.7% to Wales at 37.4% — a spread of 11.7 percentage points.

What happens when they leave

Official statisticEurostat’s harmonised Labour Force Survey indicators

Who is counted Whole European field; UK nations where a figure exists on the definition. Young adults in the resident population, in the age band each indicator defines — 20 to 24 for employment, 15 to 29 for NEET, 18 to 24 for early leaving. These are three different age bands and the three tables are not comparable with one another.

The United Kingdom left this collection

The United Kingdom is still a geography in each of these Eurostat datasets and carries no value in any of them. The pipeline reads the last year each series does carry a UK figure straight from the source rather than describing the gap in prose, and on all three that year is the same one. The United Kingdom is still listed as a geography in all three of Eurostat’s youth series and carries no value in any of them. The last year it does is 2019 — which is why the two tables here that have no ONS equivalent carry rows stating the absence rather than a number.

One of these three has a UK equivalent good enough to rank. Two do not, and their tables carry rows saying so rather than a number worked out here. That asymmetry is the honest state of the evidence and it is shown rather than smoothed over.

Employment at 20 to 24

Northern Ireland recorded 71.2% on Employment at 20 to 24, 2025, placing it 5th of 34 European systems in this table. This source publishes no standard errors, so no test of the difference between this entry and its neighbours is possible and the position is the order of the published figures alone.

The EU average (27 countries) on Employment at 20 to 24, 2025 is 53.5%. Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales were above it. No UK system was at or below it.

Grade BSame definition, different collectors2025

Employment at 20 to 24, 2025

Employment rate of 20- to 24-year-olds: the share of that age group in employment on the International Labour Organization definition.

Read this before the numbers. The four UK rows on this table are not Eurostat figures. The United Kingdom stopped contributing to this harmonised collection and its last year in the series is 2019. The UK-nation rows are produced by the Office for National Statistics from the Annual Population Survey. The Annual Population Survey is the ONS's boosted Labour Force Survey and measures employment on the same International Labour Organization definition the EU Labour Force Survey uses, for the same age group and the same calendar year. It is a different collection run by a different body: the sample, the boost design and the weighting are the ONS's own, and the figure is an ONS statistic rather than part of the harmonised European series. They are ranked alongside the Eurostat rows because the definition matches, and every one of them carries this label on the row itself.

Coverage: Every European Union member state, every EFTA state, and the four nations of the United Kingdom — 35 entries, no subset. Eurostat publishes no 2025 value for Liechtenstein; it appears as a row stating that. The UK-nation rows come from a different collection and are labelled on every row.
Ordering: Ordered from the highest employment rate. A higher rate at this age is not read here as a better outcome: at 20 to 24 the rate moves with how many people are in full-time education as much as with the labour market, and countries with large university sectors record lower rates for that reason.

The top of the table, and the UK’s systems

A short view of a long table. Every one of the 34 rows is in the full table below.

Iceland83.4%1st of 34
Netherlands80.6%2nd of 34
Denmark71.5%3rd of 34
Northern Ireland71.2%5th of 34
Scotland68.4%10th of 34
England66.8%12th of 34
Wales61.4%14th of 34

Employment at 20 to 24, 2025. Every European Union member state, every EFTA state, and the four nations of the United Kingdom — 35 entries, no subset. Eurostat publishes no 2025 value for Liechtenstein; it appears as a row stating that. The UK-nation rows come from a different collection and are labelled on every row. Ordered from the highest employment rate. A higher rate at this age is not read here as a better outcome: at 20 to 24 the rate moves with how many people are in full-time education as much as with the labour market, and countries with large university sectors record lower rates for that reason.
Rank range	Country or system	% of the age group	± S.E.
1st of 34	Iceland	83.4%	—
2nd of 34	Netherlands	80.6%	—
3rd of 34	Denmark	71.5%	—
4th of 34	Germany	71.2%	—
5th of 34	Northern IrelandONS equivalent: Produced by the Office for National Statistics, not Eurostat.Office for National Statistics, Annual Population Survey · Jan 2025-Dec 2025	71.2%ONS confidence: ± 5.3	—
6th of 34	Switzerland	70.6%	—
7th of 34	Ireland	69.3%	—
8th of 34	Malta	69.1%	—
9th of 34	Norway	68.8%	—
10th of 34	ScotlandONS equivalent: Produced by the Office for National Statistics, not Eurostat.Office for National Statistics, Annual Population Survey · Jan 2025-Dec 2025	68.4%ONS confidence: ± 3.4	—
11th of 34	Austria	66.9%	—
12th of 34	EnglandONS equivalent: Produced by the Office for National Statistics, not Eurostat.Office for National Statistics, Annual Population Survey · Jan 2025-Dec 2025	66.8%ONS confidence: ± 1.3	—
13th of 34	Sweden	62.3%	—
14th of 34	WalesONS equivalent: Produced by the Office for National Statistics, not Eurostat.Office for National Statistics, Annual Population Survey · Jan 2025-Dec 2025	61.4%ONS confidence: ± 4.5	—
15th of 34	Estonia	60.8%	—
16th of 34	Lithuania	59.3%	—
17th of 34	Latvia	59.1%	—
18th of 34	Finland	57.8%	—
19th of 34	Cyprus	57.5%	—
20th of 34	FranceCaveat: Eurostat flag d: definition differs — see the dataset’s own metadata.	56.4%	—
21st of 34	Poland	51.8%	—
22nd of 34	Slovenia	51.8%	—
23rd of 34	Portugal	48.1%	—
24th of 34	Czechia	47.9%	—
25th of 34	Hungary	46.8%	—
26th of 34	SpainCaveat: Eurostat flag d: definition differs — see the dataset’s own metadata.	43.7%	—
27th of 34	Croatia	42.6%	—
28th of 34	Belgium	42.5%	—
29th of 34	Greece	41.1%	—
30th of 34	Slovakia	40.6%	—
31st of 34	Luxembourg	38.2%	—
32nd of 34	Romania	33.5%	—
33rd of 34	Bulgaria	32.4%	—
34th of 34	Italy	32.4%	—
Not ranked	EU average (27 countries)	53.5%	—

In the frame, absent from the source

Liechtenstein — Eurostat publishes no value for Liechtenstein in 2025 in this series.

No published uncertainty. This source publishes no standard errors, so no range can be computed. The positions are the ordering of the published figures and should not be read as differences that have been tested.

Eurostat publishes no standard errors for these indicators through its dissemination interface, so no rank range can be computed for this table and none is shown. The order is the order of the published figures. Neighbouring rows should not be read as differences that have been tested — on the PISA tables above they have been, and the difference between the two treatments is a difference in what the publishers release, not in the care taken here.

The United Kingdom still exists as a geography in this Eurostat dataset and carries no value. The last year it does carry one is 2019.

Source: Eurostat, EU Labour Force Survey indicators (lfsa_ergan); ONS, Annual Population Survey for the UK nations ↗ Eurostat (European rows); Office for National Statistics (UK rows). Eurostat copyright and licence policy — reuse permitted with acknowledgement. Published 2026-06-30. Retrieved 2026-08-17.

View as table

Country or system	% of the age group	Standard error	Rank range	Caveats
Iceland	83.4%	—	1st of 34
Netherlands	80.6%	—	2nd of 34
Denmark	71.5%	—	3rd of 34
Germany	71.2%	—	4th of 34
Northern Ireland	71.2%	ONS confidence: ± 5.3	5th of 34	Produced by the Office for National Statistics, not Eurostat.
Switzerland	70.6%	—	6th of 34
Ireland	69.3%	—	7th of 34
Malta	69.1%	—	8th of 34
Norway	68.8%	—	9th of 34
Scotland	68.4%	ONS confidence: ± 3.4	10th of 34	Produced by the Office for National Statistics, not Eurostat.
Austria	66.9%	—	11th of 34
England	66.8%	ONS confidence: ± 1.3	12th of 34	Produced by the Office for National Statistics, not Eurostat.
Sweden	62.3%	—	13th of 34
Wales	61.4%	ONS confidence: ± 4.5	14th of 34	Produced by the Office for National Statistics, not Eurostat.
Estonia	60.8%	—	15th of 34
Lithuania	59.3%	—	16th of 34
Latvia	59.1%	—	17th of 34
Finland	57.8%	—	18th of 34
Cyprus	57.5%	—	19th of 34
France	56.4%	—	20th of 34	Eurostat flag d: definition differs — see the dataset’s own metadata.
Poland	51.8%	—	21st of 34
Slovenia	51.8%	—	22nd of 34
Portugal	48.1%	—	23rd of 34
Czechia	47.9%	—	24th of 34
Hungary	46.8%	—	25th of 34
Spain	43.7%	—	26th of 34	Eurostat flag d: definition differs — see the dataset’s own metadata.
Croatia	42.6%	—	27th of 34
Belgium	42.5%	—	28th of 34
Greece	41.1%	—	29th of 34
Slovakia	40.6%	—	30th of 34
Luxembourg	38.2%	—	31st of 34
Romania	33.5%	—	32nd of 34
Bulgaria	32.4%	—	33rd of 34
Italy	32.4%	—	34th of 34
Liechtenstein	No value	—	Not ranked	Eurostat publishes no value for Liechtenstein in 2025 in this series.

A high youth employment rate is not straightforwardly good news

At 20 to 24 this rate moves with how many people are in full-time education as much as with the labour market. Countries near the bottom of this table include several with very large university sectors, and a system that sends more of its young people into higher education will record a lower employment rate for exactly that reason. The table is ordered, not judged.

Not in employment, education or training, 15 to 29

No figure for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales appears on Not in employment, education or training, 15 to 29, 2025, and none has been constructed. No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Eurostat counts 15- to 29-year-olds who are neither in employment nor in any formal or non-formal education or training. The United Kingdom's own NEET statistics are published for ages 16 to 24 — by the Office for National Statistics for the UK as a whole, and separately by the Department for Education and each devolved government for the individual nations, each on its own basis. None of those is the measure ranked here, and no published table converts one into the other. A figure has not been constructed.

Grade ASame instrument2025

Not in employment, education or training, 15 to 29, 2025

Share of 15- to 29-year-olds neither in employment nor in formal or non-formal education or training.

Coverage: Every European Union member state, every EFTA state, and the four nations of the United Kingdom — 35 entries, no subset. Eurostat publishes no 2025 value for Liechtenstein; it appears as a row stating that. England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales carry no figure on this definition and their rows say why. Every figure on this table comes from the one harmonised collection.
Ordering: Ordered from the smallest share upwards.

The top of the table, and the UK’s systems

A short view of a long table. Every one of the 30 rows is in the full table below.

Iceland4.2%1st of 30
Netherlands5.3%2nd of 30
Sweden5.9%3rd of 30

Not in employment, education or training, 15 to 29, 2025. Every European Union member state, every EFTA state, and the four nations of the United Kingdom — 35 entries, no subset. Eurostat publishes no 2025 value for Liechtenstein; it appears as a row stating that. England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales carry no figure on this definition and their rows say why. Every figure on this table comes from the one harmonised collection. Ordered from the smallest share upwards.
Rank range	Country or system	% of the age group	± S.E.
1st of 30	Iceland	4.2%	—
2nd of 30	Netherlands	5.3%	—
3rd of 30	Sweden	5.9%	—
4th of 30	Norway	7.0%	—
5th of 30	Slovenia	7.6%	—
6th of 30	Czechia	8.0%	—
7th of 30	Portugal	8.0%	—
8th of 30	Ireland	8.1%	—
9th of 30	Malta	8.5%	—
10th of 30	Switzerland	8.7%	—
11th of 30	Luxembourg	8.8%	—
12th of 30	DenmarkCaveat: Eurostat flag b: break in the time series.	8.9%	—
13th of 30	Poland	9.2%	—
14th of 30	Germany	9.5%	—
15th of 30	Belgium	9.8%	—
16th of 30	Austria	10.3%	—
17th of 30	Cyprus	10.6%	—
18th of 30	Hungary	10.6%	—
19th of 30	Croatia	10.8%	—
20th of 30	Latvia	11.0%	—
21st of 30	Slovakia	11.1%	—
22nd of 30	Estonia	11.2%	—
23rd of 30	Finland	11.2%	—
24th of 30	SpainCaveat: Eurostat flag d: definition differs — see the dataset’s own metadata.	11.5%	—
25th of 30	Lithuania	12.4%	—
26th of 30	FranceCaveat: Eurostat flag d: definition differs — see the dataset’s own metadata.	12.9%	—
27th of 30	Italy	13.3%	—
28th of 30	Greece	13.6%	—
29th of 30	Bulgaria	13.8%	—
30th of 30	Romania	19.2%	—
Not ranked	EU average (27 countries)	11.0%	—

In the frame, absent from the source

Liechtenstein — Eurostat publishes no value for Liechtenstein in 2025 in this series.
England — No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Eurostat counts 15- to 29-year-olds who are neither in employment nor in any formal or non-formal education or training. The United Kingdom's own NEET statistics are published for ages 16 to 24 — by the Office for National Statistics for the UK as a whole, and separately by the Department for Education and each devolved government for the individual nations, each on its own basis. None of those is the measure ranked here, and no published table converts one into the other. A figure has not been constructed.
Northern Ireland — No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Eurostat counts 15- to 29-year-olds who are neither in employment nor in any formal or non-formal education or training. The United Kingdom's own NEET statistics are published for ages 16 to 24 — by the Office for National Statistics for the UK as a whole, and separately by the Department for Education and each devolved government for the individual nations, each on its own basis. None of those is the measure ranked here, and no published table converts one into the other. A figure has not been constructed.
Scotland — No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Eurostat counts 15- to 29-year-olds who are neither in employment nor in any formal or non-formal education or training. The United Kingdom's own NEET statistics are published for ages 16 to 24 — by the Office for National Statistics for the UK as a whole, and separately by the Department for Education and each devolved government for the individual nations, each on its own basis. None of those is the measure ranked here, and no published table converts one into the other. A figure has not been constructed.
Wales — No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Eurostat counts 15- to 29-year-olds who are neither in employment nor in any formal or non-formal education or training. The United Kingdom's own NEET statistics are published for ages 16 to 24 — by the Office for National Statistics for the UK as a whole, and separately by the Department for Education and each devolved government for the individual nations, each on its own basis. None of those is the measure ranked here, and no published table converts one into the other. A figure has not been constructed.

The United Kingdom still exists as a geography in this Eurostat dataset and carries no value. The last year it does carry one is 2019.

The UK’s own NEET statistics count ages 16 to 24 and are produced separately by the ONS, the Department for Education and each devolved government. They are a different measure of a different age group and none of them appears on this table.

Source: Eurostat, EU Labour Force Survey indicators (edat_lfse_20) ↗ Eurostat. Eurostat copyright and licence policy — reuse permitted with acknowledgement. Published 2026-06-11. Retrieved 2026-08-17.

View as table

Country or system	% of the age group	Standard error	Rank range	Caveats
Iceland	4.2%	—	1st of 30
Netherlands	5.3%	—	2nd of 30
Sweden	5.9%	—	3rd of 30
Norway	7.0%	—	4th of 30
Slovenia	7.6%	—	5th of 30
Czechia	8.0%	—	6th of 30
Portugal	8.0%	—	7th of 30
Ireland	8.1%	—	8th of 30
Malta	8.5%	—	9th of 30
Switzerland	8.7%	—	10th of 30
Luxembourg	8.8%	—	11th of 30
Denmark	8.9%	—	12th of 30	Eurostat flag b: break in the time series.
Poland	9.2%	—	13th of 30
Germany	9.5%	—	14th of 30
Belgium	9.8%	—	15th of 30
Austria	10.3%	—	16th of 30
Cyprus	10.6%	—	17th of 30
Hungary	10.6%	—	18th of 30
Croatia	10.8%	—	19th of 30
Latvia	11.0%	—	20th of 30
Slovakia	11.1%	—	21st of 30
Estonia	11.2%	—	22nd of 30
Finland	11.2%	—	23rd of 30
Spain	11.5%	—	24th of 30	Eurostat flag d: definition differs — see the dataset’s own metadata.
Lithuania	12.4%	—	25th of 30
France	12.9%	—	26th of 30	Eurostat flag d: definition differs — see the dataset’s own metadata.
Italy	13.3%	—	27th of 30
Greece	13.6%	—	28th of 30
Bulgaria	13.8%	—	29th of 30
Romania	19.2%	—	30th of 30
Liechtenstein	No value	—	Not ranked	Eurostat publishes no value for Liechtenstein in 2025 in this series.
England	No value	—	Not ranked	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Eurostat counts 15- to 29-year-olds who are neither in employment nor in any formal or non-formal education or training. The United Kingdom's own NEET statistics are published for ages 16 to 24 — by the Office for National Statistics for the UK as a whole, and separately by the Department for Education and each devolved government for the individual nations, each on its own basis. None of those is the measure ranked here, and no published table converts one into the other. A figure has not been constructed.
Northern Ireland	No value	—	Not ranked	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Eurostat counts 15- to 29-year-olds who are neither in employment nor in any formal or non-formal education or training. The United Kingdom's own NEET statistics are published for ages 16 to 24 — by the Office for National Statistics for the UK as a whole, and separately by the Department for Education and each devolved government for the individual nations, each on its own basis. None of those is the measure ranked here, and no published table converts one into the other. A figure has not been constructed.
Scotland	No value	—	Not ranked	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Eurostat counts 15- to 29-year-olds who are neither in employment nor in any formal or non-formal education or training. The United Kingdom's own NEET statistics are published for ages 16 to 24 — by the Office for National Statistics for the UK as a whole, and separately by the Department for Education and each devolved government for the individual nations, each on its own basis. None of those is the measure ranked here, and no published table converts one into the other. A figure has not been constructed.
Wales	No value	—	Not ranked	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Eurostat counts 15- to 29-year-olds who are neither in employment nor in any formal or non-formal education or training. The United Kingdom's own NEET statistics are published for ages 16 to 24 — by the Office for National Statistics for the UK as a whole, and separately by the Department for Education and each devolved government for the individual nations, each on its own basis. None of those is the measure ranked here, and no published table converts one into the other. A figure has not been constructed.

Early leavers from education and training, 18 to 24

No figure for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales appears on Early leavers from education and training, 18 to 24, 2025, and none has been constructed. No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Early leaving from education and training is a Eurostat definition — 18- to 24-year-olds whose highest attainment is at most lower secondary education and who were not in education or training in the four weeks before the survey. No Office for National Statistics series on that definition has been published since the United Kingdom left the harmonised collection, and the nations do not publish one either. A figure has not been constructed.

Grade ASame instrument2025

Early leavers from education and training, 18 to 24, 2025

Share of 18- to 24-year-olds whose highest attainment is at most lower secondary education and who were not in education or training in the four weeks before the survey.

Coverage: Every European Union member state, every EFTA state, and the four nations of the United Kingdom — 35 entries, no subset. Eurostat publishes no 2025 value for Luxembourg or Liechtenstein; they appear as rows stating that. England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales carry no figure on this definition and their rows say why. Every figure on this table comes from the one harmonised collection.
Ordering: Ordered from the smallest share upwards.

The top of the table, and the UK’s systems

A short view of a long table. Every one of the 29 rows is in the full table below.

Croatia2.1%1st of 29
Greece3.0%2nd of 29
Ireland3.6%3rd of 29

Early leavers from education and training, 18 to 24, 2025. Every European Union member state, every EFTA state, and the four nations of the United Kingdom — 35 entries, no subset. Eurostat publishes no 2025 value for Luxembourg or Liechtenstein; they appear as rows stating that. England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales carry no figure on this definition and their rows say why. Every figure on this table comes from the one harmonised collection. Ordered from the smallest share upwards.
Rank range	Country or system	% of the age group	± S.E.
1st of 29	CroatiaCaveat: Eurostat flag u: low reliability.	2.1%	—
2nd of 29	Greece	3.0%	—
3rd of 29	Ireland	3.6%	—
4th of 29	Norway	3.8%	—
5th of 29	Poland	4.0%	—
6th of 29	Slovenia	5.5%	—
7th of 29	Switzerland	5.5%	—
8th of 29	Lithuania	5.9%	—
9th of 29	Czechia	6.1%	—
10th of 29	Portugal	6.1%	—
11th of 29	Sweden	6.7%	—
12th of 29	Slovakia	6.8%	—
13th of 29	FranceCaveat: Eurostat flag d: definition differs — see the dataset’s own metadata.	7.2%	—
14th of 29	Belgium	7.3%	—
15th of 29	Netherlands	7.4%	—
16th of 29	Italy	8.2%	—
17th of 29	Bulgaria	8.6%	—
18th of 29	Malta	8.6%	—
19th of 29	Latvia	8.8%	—
20th of 29	Hungary	9.3%	—
21st of 29	Cyprus	9.8%	—
22nd of 29	Finland	9.9%	—
23rd of 29	Austria	10.0%	—
24th of 29	DenmarkCaveat: Eurostat flag b: break in the time series.	10.0%	—
25th of 29	Estonia	10.2%	—
26th of 29	SpainCaveat: Eurostat flag d: definition differs — see the dataset’s own metadata.	12.8%	—
27th of 29	Germany	13.1%	—
28th of 29	Romania	15.5%	—
29th of 29	Iceland	16.7%	—
Not ranked	EU average (27 countries)	9.1%	—

In the frame, absent from the source

Luxembourg — Eurostat publishes no value for Luxembourg in 2025 in this series.
Liechtenstein — Eurostat publishes no value for Liechtenstein in 2025 in this series.
England — No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Early leaving from education and training is a Eurostat definition — 18- to 24-year-olds whose highest attainment is at most lower secondary education and who were not in education or training in the four weeks before the survey. No Office for National Statistics series on that definition has been published since the United Kingdom left the harmonised collection, and the nations do not publish one either. A figure has not been constructed.
Northern Ireland — No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Early leaving from education and training is a Eurostat definition — 18- to 24-year-olds whose highest attainment is at most lower secondary education and who were not in education or training in the four weeks before the survey. No Office for National Statistics series on that definition has been published since the United Kingdom left the harmonised collection, and the nations do not publish one either. A figure has not been constructed.
Scotland — No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Early leaving from education and training is a Eurostat definition — 18- to 24-year-olds whose highest attainment is at most lower secondary education and who were not in education or training in the four weeks before the survey. No Office for National Statistics series on that definition has been published since the United Kingdom left the harmonised collection, and the nations do not publish one either. A figure has not been constructed.
Wales — No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Early leaving from education and training is a Eurostat definition — 18- to 24-year-olds whose highest attainment is at most lower secondary education and who were not in education or training in the four weeks before the survey. No Office for National Statistics series on that definition has been published since the United Kingdom left the harmonised collection, and the nations do not publish one either. A figure has not been constructed.

The United Kingdom still exists as a geography in this Eurostat dataset and carries no value. The last year it does carry one is 2019.

Source: Eurostat, EU Labour Force Survey indicators (edat_lfse_14) ↗ Eurostat. Eurostat copyright and licence policy — reuse permitted with acknowledgement. Published 2026-06-11. Retrieved 2026-08-17.

View as table

Country or system	% of the age group	Standard error	Rank range	Caveats
Croatia	2.1%	—	1st of 29	Eurostat flag u: low reliability.
Greece	3.0%	—	2nd of 29
Ireland	3.6%	—	3rd of 29
Norway	3.8%	—	4th of 29
Poland	4.0%	—	5th of 29
Slovenia	5.5%	—	6th of 29
Switzerland	5.5%	—	7th of 29
Lithuania	5.9%	—	8th of 29
Czechia	6.1%	—	9th of 29
Portugal	6.1%	—	10th of 29
Sweden	6.7%	—	11th of 29
Slovakia	6.8%	—	12th of 29
France	7.2%	—	13th of 29	Eurostat flag d: definition differs — see the dataset’s own metadata.
Belgium	7.3%	—	14th of 29
Netherlands	7.4%	—	15th of 29
Italy	8.2%	—	16th of 29
Bulgaria	8.6%	—	17th of 29
Malta	8.6%	—	18th of 29
Latvia	8.8%	—	19th of 29
Hungary	9.3%	—	20th of 29
Cyprus	9.8%	—	21st of 29
Finland	9.9%	—	22nd of 29
Austria	10.0%	—	23rd of 29
Denmark	10.0%	—	24th of 29	Eurostat flag b: break in the time series.
Estonia	10.2%	—	25th of 29
Spain	12.8%	—	26th of 29	Eurostat flag d: definition differs — see the dataset’s own metadata.
Germany	13.1%	—	27th of 29
Romania	15.5%	—	28th of 29
Iceland	16.7%	—	29th of 29
Luxembourg	No value	—	Not ranked	Eurostat publishes no value for Luxembourg in 2025 in this series.
Liechtenstein	No value	—	Not ranked	Eurostat publishes no value for Liechtenstein in 2025 in this series.
England	No value	—	Not ranked	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Early leaving from education and training is a Eurostat definition — 18- to 24-year-olds whose highest attainment is at most lower secondary education and who were not in education or training in the four weeks before the survey. No Office for National Statistics series on that definition has been published since the United Kingdom left the harmonised collection, and the nations do not publish one either. A figure has not been constructed.
Northern Ireland	No value	—	Not ranked	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Early leaving from education and training is a Eurostat definition — 18- to 24-year-olds whose highest attainment is at most lower secondary education and who were not in education or training in the four weeks before the survey. No Office for National Statistics series on that definition has been published since the United Kingdom left the harmonised collection, and the nations do not publish one either. A figure has not been constructed.
Scotland	No value	—	Not ranked	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Early leaving from education and training is a Eurostat definition — 18- to 24-year-olds whose highest attainment is at most lower secondary education and who were not in education or training in the four weeks before the survey. No Office for National Statistics series on that definition has been published since the United Kingdom left the harmonised collection, and the nations do not publish one either. A figure has not been constructed.
Wales	No value	—	Not ranked	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Early leaving from education and training is a Eurostat definition — 18- to 24-year-olds whose highest attainment is at most lower secondary education and who were not in education or training in the four weeks before the survey. No Office for National Statistics series on that definition has been published since the United Kingdom left the harmonised collection, and the nations do not publish one either. A figure has not been constructed.

Four empty rows are a finding, not a gap

It would have been easy to put the UK’s own 16-to-24 NEET rate into a table of 15-to-29 rates and let the reader assume they were the same measure. They are not, and a figure that looks comparable but is not does more damage than a row that says nothing is available. The rows stay, and they say why.

Writing

Official statisticNo ranking exists, and this section explains why

Who is counted The United Kingdom's four education systems only. There is no European field for this measure.. Each nation's own assessed population, which is not the same population in any two of them: every eligible pupil at the end of key stage 2 in England, all pupils at three primary stages in Scotland, and — in the two nations that assess writing nationally at all — nobody, because they do not.

Reading and maths have a European table on this page because one assessment measured every country the same way. Writing has none, and not because the search failed: PISA assesses reading, mathematics and science, and publishes no writing domain. The staged PISA volumes were checked for one and it is not there. Nothing else measures extended writing across Europe either.

Grade CContext onlyNo league table

Writing — why no European league table exists

Why there is no ranking

There is no international writing assessment. PISA measures reading, mathematics and science, and publishes no writing domain, so no European table of writing attainment can be built at all. What each UK nation publishes is its own indicator: two of the four assess writing nationally and two do not, and the two that do assess different pupils at different ages against different frameworks. Ordering these figures would state a comparison that none of the publishers makes and none of the definitions supports.

What would have to exist for one

One writing assessment, administered to comparable samples in each country under one methodology in one period, with published means or percentages and their standard errors — which is precisely what PISA does for reading, mathematics and science and does not do for writing. Short of that, a European ranking of writing cannot exist, and the UK's own four figures would still need a common age, a common framework and a common reporting basis before they could be ranked against each other.

England
Pupils meeting the expected standard in writing, teacher assessment, end of key stage 2
73.0% — % of eligible pupils
End of key stage 2 (age 11). Teacher assessment against the national framework, for every eligible pupil in state-funded schools.
2024/25 · Department for Education, key stage 2 attainment ↗
Northern Ireland
No national writing attainment figure is currently reported
No figure. Northern Ireland publishes no current national writing attainment figure. Following the Independent Review of Assessment the Department of Education accepted the removal of the Levels of Progression, and interim arrangements running from 2025-26 to 2027-28 assess a representative sample of pupils in the final year of key stages 1, 2 and 3 in literacy and numeracy. Those results are not published at pupil or school level, and writing is not reported separately from literacy.
Sample-based system-level check at the end of key stages 1, 2 and 3. A representative sample rather than every pupil, reported at system level in literacy and numeracy.
2025-26 to 2027-28 interim arrangements · Department of Education (Northern Ireland), Assessment Reform ↗
Scotland
Pupils achieving the expected Curriculum for Excellence level in writing
76.5% — % of pupils, P1, P4 and P7 combined
Primary stages P1, P4 and P7 combined (ages 5, 8 and 11). Teacher professional judgement against Curriculum for Excellence levels, for all pupils in publicly funded primary classes.
2024-25 · Scottish Government, Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels ↗
Wales
No national writing assessment is reported
No figure. Wales publishes no national writing attainment figure. The Education (Revocation of Assessment Arrangements in the National Curriculum and Miscellaneous Amendments) (Wales) Regulations 2022 revoked the key stage 2 and key stage 3 assessment arrangements orders and the moderation order, and the end-of-phase assessment arrangements for the Foundation Phase. Under Curriculum for Wales, assessment is a matter for schools rather than a national collection. The national personalised assessments that continue for years 2 to 9 cover reading and numeracy; there is no writing assessment to report.
Not assessed nationally. Assessment under Curriculum for Wales is carried out by schools and is not collected as a national statistic.
From 2022 · The Education (Revocation of Assessment Arrangements in the National Curriculum and Miscellaneous Amendments) (Wales) Regulations 2022 ↗

Entries are in alphabetical order. They are not ordered by their figures, and the figures are not on a common scale, so nothing here can be read as a position.

Two of the four nations have no figure at all — by decision, not by omission

Wales revoked its key stage assessment arrangements in 2022 and its continuing national assessments cover reading and numeracy. Northern Ireland removed the Levels of Progression and now checks a representative sample in literacy and numeracy, publishing nothing at pupil or school level. Those are deliberate choices about how a system watches itself, and they are more informative than any number this page could have put in the gap.

Suspensions and exclusions

Official statisticSummarised here; the full comparison lives in the behaviour chapter

Who is counted The United Kingdom's four systems, summarised; European regimes are set out in the behaviour chapter. Each nation's own counting unit, which differs: England publishes episodes and pupils, Scotland cases, Wales exclusions. These are not interchangeable and are never added together.

Grade CContext onlyNo league table

Suspensions and exclusions — what can and cannot be compared

Why there is no ranking

There is no standardised European series on school exclusion. The full Eurostat catalogue was searched: every education-related result for “exclusion” refers to poverty and social exclusion, not exclusion from school. The OECD dataflow catalogue contains no dataflow mentioning suspension, expulsion or disciplinary measures at all. What follows is therefore a comparison of legal regimes and of what each country publishes, not a ranking. Of the 5 European systems examined in the behaviour chapter, 1 publish a regular national count at all. Exclusion is a national competence with no European reporting obligation attached; the legal instruments differ in who decides, on what grounds and for how long; and in Germany school law belongs to each Land rather than the federation, so even a single German national figure is not a straightforward thing to produce. Within the United Kingdom the same problem appears in miniature: the four nations use different instruments and publish on different denominators.

What would have to exist for one

A common definition of what an exclusion is, agreed across jurisdictions whose school law differs on who may exclude and for what; a common counting unit, since some publishers count episodes and others count pupils; a common denominator; and a regular obligation to publish. None of those exists, and the first would be the hardest, because the instruments are not variants of one thing.

England
Suspensions · Permanent exclusions · Pupils suspended at least once
913,000 episodes · 9,906 pupils · 326,674 pupils
Education Act 2002 and the School Discipline (Pupil Exclusions and Reviews) (England) Regulations 2012. A head teacher decides; governors review; an independent review panel can be requested. Published rate: 0.12 permanent exclusions per 100 pupils.
2024/25 · DfE, Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England ↗
Northern Ireland
No downloadable national series
No figure. Northern Ireland is absent. Its suspension and expulsion figures are reported within the Department of Education's school census outputs rather than as a standalone downloadable statistical table, and no machine-readable series was located. Recorded as a gap rather than filled by transcription.
Suspension and expulsion under the Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 and the Scheme for the Suspension and Expulsion of Pupils.
— · NI Department of Education, education statistics ↗
Scotland
Cases of exclusion, all types · Temporary exclusions · Removed from register
10,647 cases · 10,647 cases · 0 pupils
Scottish statutory guidance, "Included, Engaged and Involved Part 2", under the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 and subsequent legislation. Local authorities exclude; there is no separate category equivalent to an English suspension. Published rate: 15.2 exclusions per 1,000 pupils.
2024/25 · Scottish Government, Exclusions from Schools 2024/25 ↗
Wales
Fixed-term exclusions · Permanent exclusions
31,987 exclusions · 415 exclusions
Welsh Government guidance "Exclusion from schools and pupil referral units", under the Education Act 2002 as it applies in Wales. Head teachers exclude; governing bodies and local authorities review. Published rate: 0.88 permanent per 1,000 pupils · 67.9 fixed-term per 1,000.
2022/23 · Welsh Government, Permanent and fixed-term exclusions from schools ↗

Entries are in alphabetical order. They are not ordered by their figures, and the figures are not on a common scale, so nothing here can be read as a position.

The full European comparison lives in the behaviour chapter — Legal frameworks, the instruments each country uses, and what each publishes — set out country by country alongside the England exclusion data it belongs with. It is not repeated here.

Sources and method

How the rank ranges are computed

For each entry, its estimate is compared with every other entry in the table using z = |a − b| ÷ √(SEa² + SEb²), where SE is the standard error the source publishes. The resulting two-sided p-values are corrected for multiple comparisons by the Benjamini–Hochberg procedure at a 5% false-discovery rate, because comparing one entry against a whole field is dozens of simultaneous tests and an uncorrected 5% threshold would separate entries that the data cannot separate. An entry’s rank range runs from one plus the number of entries significantly above it to the field size minus the number significantly below it. These ranges are computed by this site from published estimates and published standard errors; they are not a rank the source itself publishes.

Contiguous lettered bands were considered and rejected. Statistical similarity is not transitive — A can be indistinguishable from B, and B from C, while A and C are clearly different — so drawing boundaries across the table would assert groupings the tests do not support. The rank range and the named not-distinguishable-from set carry the same information without inventing a boundary.

The measure manifest

Every measure on this page, its grade, the period it covers, and when it was published and retrieved.

View as table

Measure	Grade	Period	Source	Published	Retrieved
Reading, PISA 2022	Grade A	PISA 2022, assessed 2022	PISA 2022 Results, Volumes I and II	2023-12-05	2026-08-17
Mathematics, PISA 2022	Grade A	PISA 2022, assessed 2022	PISA 2022 Results, Volumes I and II	2023-12-05	2026-08-17
Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022	Grade A	PISA 2022, assessed 2022	PISA 2022 Results, Volumes I and II	2023-12-05	2026-08-17
Employment at 20 to 24, 2025	Grade B	2025	Eurostat, EU Labour Force Survey indicators (lfsa_ergan); ONS, Annual Population Survey for the UK nations	2026-06-30	2026-08-17
Not in employment, education or training, 15 to 29, 2025	Grade A	2025	Eurostat, EU Labour Force Survey indicators (edat_lfse_20)	2026-06-11	2026-08-17
Early leavers from education and training, 18 to 24, 2025	Grade A	2025	Eurostat, EU Labour Force Survey indicators (edat_lfse_14)	2026-06-11	2026-08-17

The PISA caveat register

The OECD marks every country or region that missed one or more of its sampling standards. That mark is parsed straight off the published tables and rendered on the affected rows, rather than maintained by hand. All four UK systems carry it.

View as table

Entry	Reading	Maths
Denmark	OECD sampling caveat	OECD sampling caveat
Ireland	OECD sampling caveat	OECD sampling caveat
Latvia	OECD sampling caveat	OECD sampling caveat
Netherlands	OECD sampling caveat	OECD sampling caveat
England	OECD sampling caveat	OECD sampling caveat
Northern Ireland	OECD sampling caveat	OECD sampling caveat
Scotland	OECD sampling caveat	OECD sampling caveat
Wales	OECD sampling caveat	OECD sampling caveat

* Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4).

The United Kingdom figures, and why they are not on the tables

PISA publishes a UK-wide mean as well as the four systems. It is an average of the same pupils already counted in the nation rows, so ranking it alongside them would rank the field against part of itself. The figures are here instead.

View as table

Measure	United Kingdom mean	Standard error
Reading, PISA 2022	494.4	2.37
Mathematics, PISA 2022	489.0	2.22
Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022	26.8%	0.73

ONS and Eurostat: what makes a Grade B insertion defensible

The four UK rows on this table are not Eurostat figures. The United Kingdom stopped contributing to this harmonised collection and its last year in the series is 2019. The UK-nation rows are produced by the Office for National Statistics from the Annual Population Survey. The Annual Population Survey is the ONS's boosted Labour Force Survey and measures employment on the same International Labour Organization definition the EU Labour Force Survey uses, for the same age group and the same calendar year. It is a different collection run by a different body: the sample, the boost design and the weighting are the ONS's own, and the figure is an ONS statistic rather than part of the harmonised European series. They are ranked alongside the Eurostat rows because the definition matches, and every one of them carries this label on the row itself.

The same test was applied to the other two youth indicators and failed, which is why they carry no UK rows. The rule is that a Grade B row needs a figure published by a named body on the same definition for the same period — not a figure that is merely about the same subject.

View as table

Measure	UK nation rows	Why
Employment rates by citizenship	Grade B, ONS Annual Population Survey	The Annual Population Survey is the ONS's boosted Labour Force Survey and measures employment on the same International Labour Organization definition the EU Labour Force Survey uses, for the same age group and the same calendar year. It is a different collection run by a different body: the sample, the boost design and the weighting are the ONS's own, and the figure is an ONS statistic rather than part of the harmonised European series.
Young persons neither in employment nor in education and training by labour status (NEET rates)	None — absence stated on each row	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Eurostat counts 15- to 29-year-olds who are neither in employment nor in any formal or non-formal education or training. The United Kingdom's own NEET statistics are published for ages 16 to 24 — by the Office for National Statistics for the UK as a whole, and separately by the Department for Education and each devolved government for the individual nations, each on its own basis. None of those is the measure ranked here, and no published table converts one into the other. A figure has not been constructed.
Early leavers from education and training by labour status	None — absence stated on each row	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Early leaving from education and training is a Eurostat definition — 18- to 24-year-olds whose highest attainment is at most lower secondary education and who were not in education or training in the four weeks before the survey. No Office for National Statistics series on that definition has been published since the United Kingdom left the harmonised collection, and the nations do not publish one either. A figure has not been constructed.

Eurostat observation flags

Eurostat publishes a flag against individual observations. Where one is present it is carried onto that row, in Eurostat’s own words. This is the vocabulary.

View as table

Flag	Meaning
b	Eurostat flag b: break in the time series.
c	Eurostat flag c: confidential.
d	Eurostat flag d: definition differs — see the dataset’s own metadata.
e	Eurostat flag e: estimated.
f	Eurostat flag f: forecast.
n	Eurostat flag n: not significant.
p	Eurostat flag p: provisional.
r	Eurostat flag r: revised.
s	Eurostat flag s: Eurostat estimate.
u	Eurostat flag u: low reliability.
z	Eurostat flag z: not applicable.

Cycle-update policy

These tables cover one PISA cycle. They are not a trend. Each cycle is ingested through a parameterised pipeline: adding the next one means registering its workbooks and sheet names, and registering what changed in the methodology as a series break. Nothing on this page draws a line between two cycles, because a change in a score between cycles and a change in how the assessment was run are not separable from the published tables alone.

Registered series break — pisa-cycle, 2022

The 2022 cycle was postponed by a year from 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and countries administered it under very different conditions and at different points in their school year. The OECD publishes the cycle as comparable with earlier ones but cautions against reading short-run movements as a measure of school systems alone. This page ranks within a single cycle and does not draw a trend across cycles.

Registered cycles: 2022. Retrieval route: stat.link short-links to the published Annex workbooks; requires a browser user-agent.

Every figure is computed, none is typed in

Each statistic is generated at build time from the published source through a claims layer recording the inputs, the calculation, the comparability grade and the date verified.

View as table

Claim	Grade	Statement
pisa-reading-england	Grade A	England scored 496.4 on Reading, PISA 2022, placing it 3rd–7th of 33 European systems in this table. Its score cannot be told apart statistically from 4 of them: Denmark, Finland, Poland, Scotland.
pisa-reading-northern-ireland	Grade A	Northern Ireland scored 485.2 on Reading, PISA 2022, placing it 4th–17th of 33 European systems in this table. Its score cannot be told apart statistically from 13 of them: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland.
pisa-reading-scotland	Grade A	Scotland scored 492.8 on Reading, PISA 2022, placing it 3rd–10th of 33 European systems in this table. Its score cannot be told apart statistically from 7 of them: Czechia, Denmark, England, Finland, Northern Ireland, Poland, Sweden.
pisa-reading-wales	Grade A	Wales scored 465.6 on Reading, PISA 2022, placing it 20th–26th of 33 European systems in this table. Its score cannot be told apart statistically from 6 of them: France, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Slovenia.
pisa-reading-uk-spread	Grade A	On Reading, PISA 2022, the four UK systems run from England at 496.4 to Wales at 465.6 — a spread of 30.8 score points.
pisa-reading-vs-reference	Grade A	The OECD average on Reading, PISA 2022 is 475.6. England, Scotland and Northern Ireland were above it. Wales was at or below it.
pisa-maths-england	Grade A	England scored 492.2 on Mathematics, PISA 2022, placing it 3rd–10th of 33 European systems in this table. Its score cannot be told apart statistically from 7 of them: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland.
pisa-maths-northern-ireland	Grade A	Northern Ireland scored 475.1 on Mathematics, PISA 2022, placing it 14th–24th of 33 European systems in this table. Its score cannot be told apart statistically from 10 of them: France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Sweden.
pisa-maths-scotland	Grade A	Scotland scored 470.6 on Mathematics, PISA 2022, placing it 15th–28th of 33 European systems in this table. Its score cannot be told apart statistically from 13 of them: Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Northern Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Wales.
pisa-maths-wales	Grade A	Wales scored 465.7 on Mathematics, PISA 2022, placing it 17th–29th of 33 European systems in this table. Its score cannot be told apart statistically from 12 of them: Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain.
pisa-maths-uk-spread	Grade A	On Mathematics, PISA 2022, the four UK systems run from England at 492.2 to Wales at 465.7 — a spread of 26.5 score points.
pisa-maths-vs-reference	Grade A	The OECD average on Mathematics, PISA 2022 is 472.4. England and Northern Ireland were above it. Scotland and Wales were at or below it.
pisa-absence-england	Grade A	England recorded 25.7% on Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022, placing it 23rd of 33 European systems in this table. Its figure is statistically distinguishable from every other entry in the table.
pisa-absence-northern-ireland	Grade A	Northern Ireland recorded 33.1% on Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022, placing it 28th–29th of 33 European systems in this table. Its figure cannot be told apart statistically from one of them, Malta.
pisa-absence-scotland	Grade A	Scotland recorded 28.9% on Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022, placing it 24th–27th of 33 European systems in this table. Its figure cannot be told apart statistically from 3 of them: Greece, Poland, Spain.
pisa-absence-wales	Grade A	Wales recorded 37.4% on Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022, placing it 29th–30th of 33 European systems in this table. Its figure cannot be told apart statistically from one of them, Malta.
pisa-absence-uk-spread	Grade A	On Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022, the four UK systems run from England at 25.7% to Wales at 37.4% — a spread of 11.7 percentage points.
pisa-absence-vs-reference	Grade A	The OECD average on Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022 is 19.8%. England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales were above it. No UK system was at or below it.
youth-employment-england	Grade B	England recorded 66.8% on Employment at 20 to 24, 2025, placing it 12th of 34 European systems in this table. This source publishes no standard errors, so no test of the difference between this entry and its neighbours is possible and the position is the order of the published figures alone.
youth-employment-northern-ireland	Grade B	Northern Ireland recorded 71.2% on Employment at 20 to 24, 2025, placing it 5th of 34 European systems in this table. This source publishes no standard errors, so no test of the difference between this entry and its neighbours is possible and the position is the order of the published figures alone.
youth-employment-scotland	Grade B	Scotland recorded 68.4% on Employment at 20 to 24, 2025, placing it 10th of 34 European systems in this table. This source publishes no standard errors, so no test of the difference between this entry and its neighbours is possible and the position is the order of the published figures alone.
youth-employment-wales	Grade B	Wales recorded 61.4% on Employment at 20 to 24, 2025, placing it 14th of 34 European systems in this table. This source publishes no standard errors, so no test of the difference between this entry and its neighbours is possible and the position is the order of the published figures alone.
youth-employment-uk-spread	Grade B	On Employment at 20 to 24, 2025, the four UK systems run from Northern Ireland at 71.2% to Wales at 61.4% — a spread of 9.8 percentage points.
youth-employment-vs-reference	Grade B	The EU average (27 countries) on Employment at 20 to 24, 2025 is 53.5%. Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales were above it. No UK system was at or below it.
youth-neet-uk-absent	Grade A	No figure for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales appears on Not in employment, education or training, 15 to 29, 2025, and none has been constructed. No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Eurostat counts 15- to 29-year-olds who are neither in employment nor in any formal or non-formal education or training. The United Kingdom's own NEET statistics are published for ages 16 to 24 — by the Office for National Statistics for the UK as a whole, and separately by the Department for Education and each devolved government for the individual nations, each on its own basis. None of those is the measure ranked here, and no published table converts one into the other. A figure has not been constructed.
youth-early-leavers-uk-absent	Grade A	No figure for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales appears on Early leavers from education and training, 18 to 24, 2025, and none has been constructed. No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Early leaving from education and training is a Eurostat definition — 18- to 24-year-olds whose highest attainment is at most lower secondary education and who were not in education or training in the four weeks before the survey. No Office for National Statistics series on that definition has been published since the United Kingdom left the harmonised collection, and the nations do not publish one either. A figure has not been constructed.
pisa-uk-ordering	Grade A	The four UK systems do not fall in the same order on both measures. On reading the order is England, then Scotland, then Northern Ireland, then Wales; on mathematics it is England, then Northern Ireland, then Scotland, then Wales. Two measures of the same pupils in the same assessment already disagree about the ordering, which is the plainest available argument against combining measures into one score.
uk-left-the-collection	Grade A	The United Kingdom is still listed as a geography in all three of Eurostat’s youth series and carries no value in any of them. The last year it does is 2019 — which is why the two tables here that have no ONS equivalent carry rows stating the absence rather than a number.
pisa-frame	Grade A	This page carries six measures across one frame — every EU member state, every EFTA state, and the four systems of the United Kingdom. Three come from PISA 2022 and are ranked across 33 systems; three come from Eurostat’s harmonised Labour Force Survey.

Corrections

Every figure on this page can be traced to a published table, named above with its retrieval route. If a figure here does not match the source, the source is right and this page is wrong — the ingestion is re-runnable and a correction is a re-run, not an edit. Corrections can be raised through the contact route on the About page.

Frame: EU member states, EFTA states, and the United Kingdom's four education systems. Field size on both tables: 33 systems, with Luxembourg and Liechtenstein absent from this cycle.

Last verified 2026-08-17. Data: PISA 2022 Results, Volumes I and II.

Every system, every measure

UK Facts analytical convention

Each of the UK's four education systems against each ranked measure on this page. Cells carry a rank range and the underlying figure, and every cell states its comparability grade, because a range on a Grade B measure and a range on a Grade A measure are not the same kind of statement.

Each of the UK’s education systems against each measure. No row or column is combined into a single figure.
System	Reading, PISA 2022	Mathematics, PISA 2022	Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022	Employment at 20 to 24, 2025	Not in employment, education or training, 15 to 29, 2025	Early leavers from education and training, 18 to 24, 2025	Writing	Suspensions and exclusions
England	3rd–7th of 33496.4Grade A	3rd–10th of 33492.2Grade A	23rd of 3325.7%Grade A	12th of 3466.8%Grade B	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Eurostat counts 15- to 29-year-olds who are neither in employment nor in any formal or non-formal education or training. The United Kingdom's own NEET statistics are published for ages 16 to 24 — by the Office for National Statistics for the UK as a whole, and separately by the Department for Education and each devolved government for the individual nations, each on its own basis. None of those is the measure ranked here, and no published table converts one into the other. A figure has not been constructed.Grade A	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Early leaving from education and training is a Eurostat definition — 18- to 24-year-olds whose highest attainment is at most lower secondary education and who were not in education or training in the four weeks before the survey. No Office for National Statistics series on that definition has been published since the United Kingdom left the harmonised collection, and the nations do not publish one either. A figure has not been constructed.Grade A	No ranking exists — see the writing panelGrade C	No ranking exists — see the exclusions panelGrade C
Northern Ireland	4th–17th of 33485.2Grade A	14th–24th of 33475.1Grade A	28th–29th of 3333.1%Grade A	5th of 3471.2%Grade B	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Eurostat counts 15- to 29-year-olds who are neither in employment nor in any formal or non-formal education or training. The United Kingdom's own NEET statistics are published for ages 16 to 24 — by the Office for National Statistics for the UK as a whole, and separately by the Department for Education and each devolved government for the individual nations, each on its own basis. None of those is the measure ranked here, and no published table converts one into the other. A figure has not been constructed.Grade A	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Early leaving from education and training is a Eurostat definition — 18- to 24-year-olds whose highest attainment is at most lower secondary education and who were not in education or training in the four weeks before the survey. No Office for National Statistics series on that definition has been published since the United Kingdom left the harmonised collection, and the nations do not publish one either. A figure has not been constructed.Grade A	No ranking exists — see the writing panelGrade C	No ranking exists — see the exclusions panelGrade C
Scotland	3rd–10th of 33492.8Grade A	15th–28th of 33470.6Grade A	24th–27th of 3328.9%Grade A	10th of 3468.4%Grade B	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Eurostat counts 15- to 29-year-olds who are neither in employment nor in any formal or non-formal education or training. The United Kingdom's own NEET statistics are published for ages 16 to 24 — by the Office for National Statistics for the UK as a whole, and separately by the Department for Education and each devolved government for the individual nations, each on its own basis. None of those is the measure ranked here, and no published table converts one into the other. A figure has not been constructed.Grade A	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Early leaving from education and training is a Eurostat definition — 18- to 24-year-olds whose highest attainment is at most lower secondary education and who were not in education or training in the four weeks before the survey. No Office for National Statistics series on that definition has been published since the United Kingdom left the harmonised collection, and the nations do not publish one either. A figure has not been constructed.Grade A	No ranking exists — see the writing panelGrade C	No ranking exists — see the exclusions panelGrade C
Wales	20th–26th of 33465.6Grade A	17th–29th of 33465.7Grade A	29th–30th of 3337.4%Grade A	14th of 3461.4%Grade B	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Eurostat counts 15- to 29-year-olds who are neither in employment nor in any formal or non-formal education or training. The United Kingdom's own NEET statistics are published for ages 16 to 24 — by the Office for National Statistics for the UK as a whole, and separately by the Department for Education and each devolved government for the individual nations, each on its own basis. None of those is the measure ranked here, and no published table converts one into the other. A figure has not been constructed.Grade A	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Early leaving from education and training is a Eurostat definition — 18- to 24-year-olds whose highest attainment is at most lower secondary education and who were not in education or training in the four weeks before the survey. No Office for National Statistics series on that definition has been published since the United Kingdom left the harmonised collection, and the nations do not publish one either. A figure has not been constructed.Grade A	No ranking exists — see the writing panelGrade C	No ranking exists — see the exclusions panelGrade C

There is no total column and no overall position, and there never will be. The measures point in different directions, are collected by different bodies at different grades of comparability, and several of them cannot be ranked at all. A single number combining them would have nothing behind it.

View as table

System	Reading, PISA 2022	Mathematics, PISA 2022	Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022	Employment at 20 to 24, 2025	Not in employment, education or training, 15 to 29, 2025	Early leavers from education and training, 18 to 24, 2025	Writing	Suspensions and exclusions
England	3rd–7th of 33 (496.4)	3rd–10th of 33 (492.2)	23rd of 33 (25.7%)	12th of 34 (66.8%)	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Eurostat counts 15- to 29-year-olds who are neither in employment nor in any formal or non-formal education or training. The United Kingdom's own NEET statistics are published for ages 16 to 24 — by the Office for National Statistics for the UK as a whole, and separately by the Department for Education and each devolved government for the individual nations, each on its own basis. None of those is the measure ranked here, and no published table converts one into the other. A figure has not been constructed.	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Early leaving from education and training is a Eurostat definition — 18- to 24-year-olds whose highest attainment is at most lower secondary education and who were not in education or training in the four weeks before the survey. No Office for National Statistics series on that definition has been published since the United Kingdom left the harmonised collection, and the nations do not publish one either. A figure has not been constructed.	No ranking exists — see the writing panel	No ranking exists — see the exclusions panel
Northern Ireland	4th–17th of 33 (485.2)	14th–24th of 33 (475.1)	28th–29th of 33 (33.1%)	5th of 34 (71.2%)	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Eurostat counts 15- to 29-year-olds who are neither in employment nor in any formal or non-formal education or training. The United Kingdom's own NEET statistics are published for ages 16 to 24 — by the Office for National Statistics for the UK as a whole, and separately by the Department for Education and each devolved government for the individual nations, each on its own basis. None of those is the measure ranked here, and no published table converts one into the other. A figure has not been constructed.	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Early leaving from education and training is a Eurostat definition — 18- to 24-year-olds whose highest attainment is at most lower secondary education and who were not in education or training in the four weeks before the survey. No Office for National Statistics series on that definition has been published since the United Kingdom left the harmonised collection, and the nations do not publish one either. A figure has not been constructed.	No ranking exists — see the writing panel	No ranking exists — see the exclusions panel
Scotland	3rd–10th of 33 (492.8)	15th–28th of 33 (470.6)	24th–27th of 33 (28.9%)	10th of 34 (68.4%)	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Eurostat counts 15- to 29-year-olds who are neither in employment nor in any formal or non-formal education or training. The United Kingdom's own NEET statistics are published for ages 16 to 24 — by the Office for National Statistics for the UK as a whole, and separately by the Department for Education and each devolved government for the individual nations, each on its own basis. None of those is the measure ranked here, and no published table converts one into the other. A figure has not been constructed.	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Early leaving from education and training is a Eurostat definition — 18- to 24-year-olds whose highest attainment is at most lower secondary education and who were not in education or training in the four weeks before the survey. No Office for National Statistics series on that definition has been published since the United Kingdom left the harmonised collection, and the nations do not publish one either. A figure has not been constructed.	No ranking exists — see the writing panel	No ranking exists — see the exclusions panel
Wales	20th–26th of 33 (465.6)	17th–29th of 33 (465.7)	29th–30th of 33 (37.4%)	14th of 34 (61.4%)	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Eurostat counts 15- to 29-year-olds who are neither in employment nor in any formal or non-formal education or training. The United Kingdom's own NEET statistics are published for ages 16 to 24 — by the Office for National Statistics for the UK as a whole, and separately by the Department for Education and each devolved government for the individual nations, each on its own basis. None of those is the measure ranked here, and no published table converts one into the other. A figure has not been constructed.	No figure is published for any UK nation on this definition. Early leaving from education and training is a Eurostat definition — 18- to 24-year-olds whose highest attainment is at most lower secondary education and who were not in education or training in the four weeks before the survey. No Office for National Statistics series on that definition has been published since the United Kingdom left the harmonised collection, and the nations do not publish one either. A figure has not been constructed.	No ranking exists — see the writing panel	No ranking exists — see the exclusions panel

Scope and definitions

This page has no editorial position

It publishes league tables where one instrument measured every country the same way, and refuses to publish one where it did not. There is no overall education score here and there never will be: the measures point in different directions, are collected by different bodies, and several of them cannot be ranked. A single number combining them would have nothing behind it.

Four systems, not one country

Education is devolved. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run separate systems under separate law, and PISA publishes all four separately. They appear here as four entries, never merged into one United Kingdom row.

Britain vs Europe: education and youth outcomes

Where each system sits

England

Northern Ireland

Scotland

Wales

How comparable is each measure?

Reading

Reading, PISA 2022

The top of the table, and the UK’s systems

In the frame, absent from the source

Mathematics

Mathematics, PISA 2022

The top of the table, and the UK’s systems

In the frame, absent from the source

Missing school

Skipping a whole school day, PISA 2022

The top of the table, and the UK’s systems

In the frame, absent from the source

What happens when they leave

Employment at 20 to 24

Employment at 20 to 24, 2025

The top of the table, and the UK’s systems

In the frame, absent from the source

Not in employment, education or training, 15 to 29

Not in employment, education or training, 15 to 29, 2025

The top of the table, and the UK’s systems

In the frame, absent from the source

Early leavers from education and training, 18 to 24

Early leavers from education and training, 18 to 24, 2025

The top of the table, and the UK’s systems

In the frame, absent from the source

Writing

Writing — why no European league table exists

Why there is no ranking

What would have to exist for one

England

Northern Ireland

Scotland

Wales

Suspensions and exclusions

Suspensions and exclusions — what can and cannot be compared

Why there is no ranking

What would have to exist for one

England

Northern Ireland

Scotland

Wales

Sources and method

How the rank ranges are computed

The measure manifest

The PISA caveat register

The United Kingdom figures, and why they are not on the tables

ONS and Eurostat: what makes a Grade B insertion defensible

Eurostat observation flags

Cycle-update policy

Every figure is computed, none is typed in

Corrections

Every system, every measure

Related chapters

Scope and definitions