Data Underload  / 

Literacy Scores by Country, in Reading, Math, and Science

By Nathan Yau

Among 15-year-old students, here’s how 77 countries compare in reading, math, and science. Higher scores are better.


These scores are from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). I kind of expected countries that excelled in one subject to be not as good in the other subject, but that wasn’t the case at all. If a country clusters around a certain score in reading, then they’re in the same range in the other subjects.

Note: B-S-J-Z stands for Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. PISA assessed different regions in China separately.

Chart Type Used

Beeswarm

Become a member. Support an independent site. Get extra visualization goodness.

See What You Get

Favorites

Where Bars Outnumber Grocery Stores

A closer look at the age old question of where there are more bars than grocery stores, and vice versa.

Life expectancy changes

The data goes back to 1960 and up to the most current estimates for 2009. Each line represents a country.

How People Like You Spend Their Time

Looking at American time use for various combinations of sex, age, and employment status, on weekdays and weekends.

Defense Against Dishonest Charts

This is a guide to protect ourselves and to preserve what is good about turning data into visual things.