1. Education

   OECD pupils with 5–7 hours of non-study screen time at school score 62 points lower in maths than those with up to an hour

   Those with up to an hour a day score highest (492 points). Those with none score 20 lower. 11% of 15-year-olds report five hours or more.

   Source: OECD: PISA 2022, Volume II (device questionnaire) · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGOOpen on the chart →

   More

   In 2022 the OECD's international test first asked 15-year-olds how many hours of a typical school day they spend on a phone, tablet or computer for leisure rather than learning. The answers were set against the same pupils' maths scores.

   Each bar: how far the mean maths score of pupils with this much time is below that of pupils with up to an hour a day. OECD average.

   • OECD average: maths by leisure screen time at school — none points

     471.8 (30.5% of pupils)

     OECD: PISA 2022, Volume II (device questionnaire) · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO

   • OECD average: maths by leisure screen time at school — up to 1 hour points

     491.6 (35% of pupils)

     OECD: PISA 2022, Volume II (device questionnaire) · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO

   • OECD average: maths by leisure screen time at school — 1–2 hours points

     482.9 (16% of pupils)

     OECD: PISA 2022, Volume II (device questionnaire) · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO

   • OECD average: maths by leisure screen time at school — 2–3 hours points

     468.5 (7.8% of pupils)

     OECD: PISA 2022, Volume II (device questionnaire) · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO

   • OECD average: maths by leisure screen time at school — 3–5 hours points

     451.3 (6.3% of pupils)

     OECD: PISA 2022, Volume II (device questionnaire) · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO

   • OECD average: maths by leisure screen time at school — 5–7 hours points

     430 (2.2% of pupils)

     OECD: PISA 2022, Volume II (device questionnaire) · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO

   • OECD average: maths by leisure screen time at school — over 7 hours points

     438.3 (2.2% of pupils)

     OECD: PISA 2022, Volume II (device questionnaire) · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO

   OECD PISA 2022, Volume II, tables II.B1.5.62, II.B1.5.64 and II.B1.5.77. Standard errors of the means: 0.5–1.8 points. After accounting for the socio-economic profile of pupils and schools, each extra hour at school goes with −5.8 points; moving from none to up to an hour, +10.3.

   This compares pupils in one year, not change over time, and does not say devices lower scores. Weaker pupils may turn to them more, and schools with no devices differ in other ways too. The question is new and not comparable with earlier rounds; the US is missing from these tables.

   A question for this picture

   How many hours at school do Japanese 15-year-olds spend on devices?

More findings

• Israel: 15-year-olds with problems from social media rose from 5% to 16%, and maths did not fall; in Norway there are fewer, and maths fell 33 points
• Schoolgirls in Europe and Canada: schoolwork weighs on 62% of 15-year-old girls, up from 50% in 2014; boys, 43%
• Switzerland and Italy: 19% and 65% of adults read no book in a year; adult literacy scores 266 and 246
• 15-year-olds in Europe and Canada: 32% feel low every week, up from 23% in 2018 and 22% in 2014
• US: since 2013 the weakest 10% of fourth-graders lost 15 points in reading; the strongest 10% did not change
• US: 13-year-olds read in 2023 at the level of 1971, after falling 7 points from the 2012 peak

All findings →