State PISA Rankings — TheMajority.us

Rank	State / Country	PISA Math	vs. OECD Avg
#1	Singapore	575	Top tier
#2	Macao (China)	552	Top tier
#3	Taipei	547	Top tier
#4	Hong Kong	540	Top tier
#5	Japan	536	Top tier
#6	South Korea	527	Top tier
#7	Estonia	510	Top tier
#8	Switzerland	508	Top tier
#9	MassachusettsMA	503	Top tier
#10	Canada	497	Top tier
#11	New JerseyNJ	495	Above OECD
#12	Netherlands	493	Above OECD
#13	Ireland	492	Above OECD
#14	UtahUT	491	Above OECD
#15	WyomingWY	491	Above OECD
#16	Belgium	489	Above OECD
#17	Denmark	489	Above OECD
#18	United Kingdom	489	Above OECD
#19	Poland	489	Above OECD
#20	Austria	487	Above OECD
#21	Australia	487	Above OECD
#22	Czech Republic	487	Above OECD
#23	VirginiaVA	486	Above OECD
#24	Slovenia	485	Above OECD
#25	Finland	484	Above OECD
#26	Latvia	483	Above OECD
#27	Sweden	482	Above OECD
#28	New Zealand	479	At OECD
#29	MinnesotaMN	478	At OECD
#30	WisconsinWI	478	At OECD
#31	VermontVT	478	At OECD
#32	New HampshireNH	478	At OECD
#33	IowaIA	478	At OECD
#34	MontanaMT	478	At OECD
#35	IdahoID	478	At OECD
#36	Lithuania	475	At OECD
#37	Germany	475	At OECD
#38	IndianaIN	474	At OECD
#39	France	474	At OECD
#40	Spain	473	At OECD
#41	Hungary	473	At OECD
#42	Portugal	472	At OECD
#43	Italy	471	At OECD
#44	ConnecticutCT	469	At OECD
#45	Vietnam	469	At OECD
#46	Norway	468	At OECD
#47	ColoradoCO	465	At OECD
#48	NebraskaNE	465	At OECD
#49	North DakotaND	465	At OECD
#50	TexasTX	465	At OECD
#51	United States★	465	At OECD
#52	Slovak Republic	464	At OECD
#53	Croatia	463	Below OECD
#54	KansasKS	461	Below OECD
#55	South DakotaSD	461	Below OECD
#56	Iceland	459	Below OECD
#57	Israel	458	Below OECD
#58	WashingtonWA	457	Below OECD
#59	MaineME	457	Below OECD
#60	Turkey	453	Below OECD
#61	PennsylvaniaPA	452	Below OECD
#62	OhioOH	452	Below OECD
#63	IllinoisIL	452	Below OECD
#64	North CarolinaNC	452	Below OECD
#65	FloridaFL	452	Below OECD
#66	New YorkNY	448	Below OECD
#67	GeorgiaGA	448	Below OECD
#68	Rhode IslandRI	448	Below OECD
#69	HawaiiHI	448	Below OECD
#70	MichiganMI	444	Below OECD
#71	MissouriMO	444	Below OECD
#72	DelawareDE	444	Below OECD
#73	Brunei	442	Below OECD
#74	Ukraine	441	Below OECD
#75	MarylandMD	440	Below OECD
#76	OregonOR	440	Below OECD
#77	ArizonaAZ	440	Below OECD
#78	Serbia	440	Below OECD
#79	CaliforniaCA	435	Below OECD
#80	TennesseeTN	435	Below OECD
#81	KentuckyKY	435	Below OECD
#82	South CarolinaSC	435	Below OECD
#83	ArkansasAR	431	Below OECD
#84	UAE	431	Below OECD
#85	Greece	430	Below OECD
#86	Romania	428	Below OECD
#87	NevadaNV	427	Below OECD
#88	Kazakhstan	425	Below OECD
#89	Mongolia	425	Below OECD
#90	OklahomaOK	423	Below OECD
#91	MississippiMS	423	Below OECD
#92	AlaskaAK	418	Below OECD
#93	AlabamaAL	418	Below OECD
#94	Cyprus	418	Below OECD
#95	Bulgaria	417	Below OECD
#96	Moldova	414	Below OECD
#97	Qatar	414	Below OECD
#98	Chile	412	Below OECD
#99	Uruguay	409	Below OECD
#100	Malaysia	409	Below OECD

Red rows are US states (linked to PISA via NAEP)Gold ★ marks the US national averageBlack rows are countries (actual PISA 2022 scores)

Ranked outside the global top 100: Louisiana, West Virginia, New Mexico, and DC. These states are ranked #101–#124 of 131 — below every OECD member and most partner economies.

Methodology & Sources

Why state-level PISA estimates? PISA is administered nationally, not by state. To compare US states to foreign countries we use the standard linking approach pioneered by Hanushek, Peterson & Woessmann (Teaching Math to the Talented, Education Next 2011; updates through 2020): anchor each state's NAEP Grade 8 Math score to the national NAEP → PISA conversion, then locate the resulting PISA-equivalent score on the OECD global distribution.

Linking formula (math): PISA_equiv = 465 + (NAEP_state − 274) × 4.25. This anchors US national NAEP 2022 Grade 8 Math (274) to US PISA 2022 Math (465). Ratio derived from the 2017 NCES NAEP–PISA linking study.

State NAEP scores: NCES Nation's Report Card, 2022 Grade 8 Math (nationsreportcard.gov)
PISA international scores: OECD PISA 2022 Mathematics (oecd.org/pisa)
Linking methodology: Hanushek, Peterson & Woessmann, “A Report Card on the Nation: Globally Challenged” (2011); NCES 2013–464

State-level PISA equivalents are statistically derived, not directly measured. The ranking comparisons are valid for relative positioning; individual-point differences near the middle of the distribution should be interpreted with a ±1-rank margin. Data last updated April 2026.