Reading performance among teenagers has fallen to its lowest level this century as students spend more time on digital devices and less time reading for pleasure, according to a major international education assessment.

The OECD’s 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment tested about 760,000 15-year-olds across 91 countries and economies. Reading, mathematics, and science results were all at their lowest levels since the assessment began in 2000.

Average reading performance dropped from a PISA index score of 501 in 2012 to 466 in 2025. The OECD said the average teenager was performing at a level previously associated with a student one year younger.

Students reported spending an average 3.4 hours each weekday using digital devices for leisure in OECD countries, in addition to about three hours for learning. The study found digital distraction was associated with weaker science results in most of the education systems examined.

Nearly half of students also reported regularly using AI chatbots for learning. Those using them for activities including essay drafting, research, and summarising tended to record lower science scores, though the findings show an association and do not by themselves establish that AI use caused the decline.

East Asian education systems remained the strongest performers overall, while Britain and Estonia were the only countries outside the region to reach the top 10 across reading, mathematics, and science.