Nordic students struggle in PISA as Denmark calls results a disaster

Results from the latest PISA assessment have triggered concern across the Nordic countries, with Denmark’s public broadcaster describing the country’s performance as a “complete disaster”, mbl.is reports. Iceland continues to rank last among the Nordic countries in reading, science and mathematics.

The assessment, conducted in 2025 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, tested 15-year-old students. About 760,000 students from 91 countries and economies took part, including students from 38 OECD member countries.

Norwegian students performed worse in reading, science and mathematics than students in most of the countries Norway compares itself with, according to the Norwegian newspaper VG. Mathematics and reading results were notably lower than in the 2022 assessment.

Norway’s education minister, Kari Nessa Nordtun, said the results presented a bleak picture of the country’s school system.

Sweden also recorded its worst performance in any PISA assessment, Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported. Results declined in all three tested subjects, particularly reading and mathematics.

Denmark’s results prompted warnings from the Danish public broadcaster DR, which said they were ringing alarm bells and described them as a “complete disaster”. As in Sweden, reading and mathematics showed the sharpest declines.

Finland was the only Nordic country described as holding its own, although its students performed worse than in 2022 in all three subjects. The largest decline was in reading. Finland nevertheless remained above the OECD average in every subject, with a score of 474, down 16 points from 2022, sharing 17th place with Italy, according to the Helsinki Times.

Icelandic students have experienced the sharpest decline of any country over the past decade and remain at the bottom of the Nordic rankings in all three core subjects.

England was among the countries reporting improvement. The BBC said English students improved in all three subjects, while Scotland and Wales declined in reading and mathematics. Mathematics results fell across the United Kingdom’s nations except England, while science results improved in all of them, with England recording the largest gain.

The BBC also reported that students were losing skills considered important in the age of artificial intelligence, including the ability to critically assess information from different sources. The number of students who skimmed texts and gave quick but incorrect answers had nearly doubled between 2018 and 2025.

In Spain, the newspaper El País reported a sharp fall in mathematics scores. The result was the country’s worst in the history of its participation in PISA, declining by 16 points. Reading fell by 23 points and science by eight points.