Asia dominates the global mathematics rankings

As a mathematician myself I find this very interesting. And a bit troublesome.

China leads the 2026 PISA ranking with an average score of 612—almost 150 points above the OECD average. Singapore follows at 563, with Macao and Taiwan also in the top four. Overall, Asian education systems occupy seven of the world’s top 10 positions.

Meanwhile, The Netherlands ranks 13th and the United States 27th, in line with the OECD average.More than 760,000 15-year-olds across 91 countries and economies participated in the assessment, which measures not simply memorization, but the ability to apply mathematical reasoning to real-world problems.

Sources: Visual Capitalist, based on PISA 2025 results