placestats

Internet users vs. PISA reading

Fades after adjusting for income

Across 87 countries, Internet users and PISA reading rise and fall together at r = +0.51 (on a scale from −1 to +1, where 0 means no link). Comparing only countries with similar income (GDP per person) shrinks it to -0.01, which could easily be chance (q = 0.94, allowing for the many pairs tested, and allowing for countries in the same region being alike). So the first figure mostly shows richer countries differing from poorer ones, not a link between these two things. Caution: sign flips when a single country is removed.

Comparing countries across the middle half of pisa reading, 384 to 479 PISA points, internet users is better by 7.05% of population at the top of that range than the bottom. Comparing only countries with similar national income, the gap reverses, to 0.2% of population the other way.

Link before adjusting (r)+0.513p = 3.8e-7 · 87 countries
After adjusting for national income-0.012p = 0.911 · likely range [-0.22, +0.20]
p, allowing for regions0.895standard error 0.087 · 5 regions
Check for luck (q)0.940across 12,497 pairs

How to read these.r runs from −1 (one goes up as the other goes down) to +1 (they rise together), and 0 means no link. Adjusting for national income means comparing countries with the same GDP per person, so differences in wealth can’t explain the link. Income is used in percentage terms, since an extra $1,000 means more to a poor country than to a rich one. p is how likely a link this strong would be if there were really none. Below 0.05 means it is unlikely to be chance. Very small values are written in short form: 1.1e-32 means a decimal point followed by 31 zeros and then 11, so very close to zero. The likely range is where the true figure probably lies, and a range that crosses zero means the link could easily be chance. Countries in the same region tend to resemble each other, so the third figure allows for that, which gives a fairer p. The standard error is the typical size of the error in r. Finally, testing this many pairs means some will look strong by luck alone. A q below 0.05 means this link is unlikely to be one of those.

Internet users · % of populationlink with income +0.85 · proxy
PISA reading · PISA pointslink with income +0.77 · high

Both of these rise and fall closely with national income, so a strong link between them before adjusting was close to certain. Read the adjusted figure, not the first one.

“Link with income” is how closely each measure tracks GDP per person across countries, from −1 to +1.

Every country as a dot

Internet users · % of population →PISA reading · PISA points →60.2%100%329543Albania: 85.9% of population, 358 PISA pointsUnited Arab Emirates: 100% of population, 417 PISA pointsArgentina: 89.7% of population, 401 PISA pointsAustralia: 96.1% of population, 498 PISA pointsAustria: 91.9% of population, 480 PISA pointsBelgium: 95.8% of population, 479 PISA pointsBulgaria: 82.4% of population, 404 PISA pointsBosnia and Herzegovina: 86.1% of population, 403 PISA pointsBelarus: 94.3% of population, 474 PISA pointsBrazil: 84.5% of population, 410 PISA pointsBrunei Darussalam: 96.3% of population, 429 PISA pointsCanada: 94.4% of population, 507 PISA pointsSwitzerland: 97.3% of population, 483 PISA pointsChile: 95.6% of population, 448 PISA pointsColombia: 79.3% of population, 409 PISA pointsCosta Rica: 87.2% of population, 415 PISA pointsCyprus: 89.6% of population, 381 PISA pointsCzechia: 87.7% of population, 489 PISA pointsGermany: 93.5% of population, 480 PISA pointsDenmark: 99.8% of population, 489 PISA pointsDominican Republic: 91% of population, 351 PISA pointsAlgeria: 77.4% of population, 350 PISA pointsSpain: 95.8% of population, 474 PISA pointsEstonia: 92.2% of population, 511 PISA pointsFinland: 93.7% of population, 490 PISA pointsFrance: 88.7% of population, 474 PISA pointsUnited Kingdom: 95.5% of population, 494 PISA pointsGeorgia: 83.8% of population, 374 PISA pointsGreece: 86.3% of population, 438 PISA pointsGuatemala: 60.2% of population, 374 PISA pointsHong Kong SAR, China: 95.8% of population, 500 PISA pointsCroatia: 83.6% of population, 475 PISA pointsHungary: 93.8% of population, 473 PISA pointsIndonesia: 72.8% of population, 359 PISA pointsIreland: 97.2% of population, 516 PISA pointsIceland: 98.2% of population, 436 PISA pointsIsrael: 88.2% of population, 474 PISA pointsItaly: 89.2% of population, 482 PISA pointsJamaica: 90.1% of population, 410 PISA pointsJordan: 95.6% of population, 342 PISA pointsJapan: 85.5% of population, 516 PISA pointsKazakhstan: 93.4% of population, 386 PISA pointsCambodia: 68.5% of population, 329 PISA pointsKorea, Rep.: 97.9% of population, 515 PISA pointsLebanon: 80.6% of population, 353 PISA pointsLithuania: 89.2% of population, 472 PISA pointsLuxembourg: 99.1% of population, 470 PISA pointsLatvia: 92.7% of population, 475 PISA pointsMacao SAR, China: 89.8% of population, 510 PISA pointsMorocco: 91.2% of population, 339 PISA pointsMoldova: 77.4% of population, 411 PISA pointsMexico: 83.1% of population, 415 PISA pointsNorth Macedonia: 93.1% of population, 359 PISA pointsMalta: 93.9% of population, 445 PISA pointsMontenegro: 88.9% of population, 405 PISA pointsMongolia: 85.1% of population, 378 PISA pointsMalaysia: 98% of population, 388 PISA pointsNetherlands: 97% of population, 459 PISA pointsNorway: 99% of population, 477 PISA pointsNew Zealand: 93.5% of population, 501 PISA pointsPanama: 72.8% of population, 392 PISA pointsPeru: 82% of population, 408 PISA pointsPhilippines: 67.3% of population, 347 PISA pointsPoland: 88.6% of population, 489 PISA pointsPortugal: 88.5% of population, 477 PISA pointsParaguay: 81.6% of population, 373 PISA pointsWest Bank and Gaza: 86.6% of population, 349 PISA pointsQatar: 98.1% of population, 419 PISA pointsRomania: 91.3% of population, 428 PISA pointsRussian Federation: 94.4% of population, 479 PISA pointsSaudi Arabia: 100% of population, 383 PISA pointsSingapore: 94.4% of population, 543 PISA pointsEl Salvador: 66.5% of population, 365 PISA pointsSerbia: 87.7% of population, 440 PISA pointsSlovak Republic: 89.8% of population, 447 PISA pointsSlovenia: 90.8% of population, 469 PISA pointsSweden: 95.8% of population, 487 PISA pointsThailand: 90.9% of population, 379 PISA pointsTrinidad and Tobago: 82.2% of population, 427 PISA pointsTunisia: 76.5% of population, 361 PISA pointsTurkiye: 89.8% of population, 456 PISA pointsUkraine: 82.5% of population, 428 PISA pointsUruguay: 92% of population, 430 PISA pointsUnited States: 94.7% of population, 504 PISA pointsUzbekistan: 89.5% of population, 336 PISA pointsViet Nam: 84.2% of population, 462 PISA pointsKosovo: 89.4% of population, 342 PISA pointsGTMIRLJORJPNKHMKORMARPHLSAUSGPSLV

best-fit line line after adjusting

Four ways to measure the link

MethodrpCountries
Standard (Pearson), not adjusted+0.5133.8e-787
By rank (Spearman), not adjusted+0.4861.8e-687
Standard (Pearson), adjusted for national income-0.0120.91187
By rank (Spearman), adjusted for national income-0.1680.12287

The rank version uses only each country’s place in line, from lowest to highest, so a few extreme countries count for less. The adjusted and unadjusted versions use the same 87 countries: those that report both measures and GDP per person. So the gap between them comes from the adjustment, not from a change in which countries are counted. Drop in the size of r after adjusting: +0.501 (a minus sign means it grew).

How solid is it?

Leaving out one country at a time, r ranges from -0.059 (without PAN) to +0.020 (without SAU). The bar above shows that range on a scale from −1 to +1, with the solid line at the full result. The single country that moves r most: PAN (-0.047).

Fragile: this link may not hold up.
  • sign flips when a single country is removed
  • direction is not consistent across regions

Within each region

Countries are not separate, unrelated cases, and neighbors share a lot. A link that holds inside each region is far more believable than one that shows up only when comparing regions.

nr
East Asia & Pacific15-0.01
Europe & Central Asia44-0.13
Latin America & Caribbean15+0.40

By income third

If the link shows up only in the richest third of countries, it is a feature of rich countries, not a general pattern.

nr
Poorest third29-0.07
Middle third29+0.26
Richest third29-0.23

By largest religious group

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
Christians55+0.23
Muslims18-0.09

By last european coloniser

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
Spain14+0.11
United Kingdom14-0.27

Without outliers (countries far outside the middle half of countries on either measure, by more than one and a half times the width of that middle half): r = -0.048 after dropping 4 countries.

Two series, one country

Both measures over the years for one country you pick. The two charts are stacked so they share only the years along the bottom.

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Over time, within countries

Everything above compares countries with each other at one moment. This section compares each country only with itself over 23years. So a link here can’t come from anything about a country that stays the same, such as its history, geography, institutions or culture.

The link shows up within countries over time (r = +0.273) but mostly disappears in year-to-year changes (r = —). That points to slow trends particular to each country, not the two measures moving together from year to year.

Across countries (adjusted)-0.012for comparison
Within countries+0.067each country vs itself
…and vs the same year elsewhere+0.273q = 0.025 · 56 countries
Year-on-year changes—q = —
Read with care.
  • Almost all of this indicator's variation is between countries, not within them, so the within-country estimate rests on a small part of the data.

404 country-years (one country in one year), 56 countries, 2000–2022, about 7 years each on average. Share of the variation that happens within countries over time: 8% for Internet users, 64% for PISA reading. The margins of error allow for each country appearing many times, and for each year’s value being close to the year before.

Year-to-year changes are a cautious test, not a final answer. Looking only at changes from one year to the next removes each country’s own trends. But it also makes measurement mistakes louder, which pulls the results toward zero. A near-zero result here is weak evidence of no link, not proof.

With one measure years behind the other

0.40−0.4-90+10years PISA reading trails Internet users →lag -9: r = 0.196 (n = 252)lag -8: r = 0.194 (n = 247)lag -7: r = 0.224 (n = 252)lag -6: r = 0.248 (n = 344)lag -5: r = 0.257 (n = 344)lag -4: r = 0.264 (n = 343)lag -3: r = 0.324 (n = 347)lag -2: r = 0.270 (n = 404)lag -1: r = 0.247 (n = 404)lag +0: r = 0.273 (n = 404)lag +1: r = 0.241 (n = 404)lag +2: r = 0.198 (n = 404)lag +3: r = 0.159 (n = 403)lag +4: r = 0.107 (n = 403)lag +5: r = 0.012 (n = 402)lag +6: r = -0.054 (n = 396)lag +7: r = -0.059 (n = 394)lag +8: r = -0.126 (n = 390)lag +9: r = -0.169 (n = 385)lag +10: r = -0.256 (n = 389)

Same year (lag 0): +0.273. A peak away from zero does not show which comes first. These series change slowly — this year’s value is close to last year’s. That makes the curve smooth and nearly symmetric, whatever produced the data. Even a sharp peak at one lag (a gap of some years) would not prove that one measure changes the other.

The largest value on this curve (+0.32 at lag -3) is higher than the same-year one by 0.05. That gap is not a finding. It is the largest of 20 closely related estimates, and picking the biggest of many tests always makes it look bigger. That is exactly why nothing on this site is ranked or chosen by lag.

The data


% of population
PISA points		Years
Saudi Arabia SAU100%3832024, 2022
United Arab Emirates ARE100%4172024, 2022
Denmark DNK99.8%4892024, 2022
Luxembourg LUX99.1%4702025, 2018
Norway NOR99%4772024, 2022
Iceland ISL98.2%4362024, 2022
Qatar QAT98.1%4192024, 2022
Malaysia MYS98%3882024, 2022
Korea, Rep. KOR97.9%5152024, 2022
Switzerland CHE97.3%4832025, 2022
Ireland IRL97.2%5162024, 2022
Netherlands NLD97%4592024, 2022
Brunei Darussalam BRN96.3%4292024, 2022
Australia AUS96.1%4982024, 2022
Belgium BEL95.8%4792024, 2022

World Bank, World Development Indicators
OECD databases as named on each indicator: PISA, Social Expenditure Database (SOCX), Income Distribution Database, Development Assistance Committee statistics, Family Database, Government at a Glance, Corporate Tax Statistics, employment and environment statistics

Sources

Internet users

Individuals using the Internet (% of population)

International Telecommunication Union · CC BY 4.0 · updated quarterly

PISA reading

PISA mean reading score

OECD · via Our World in Data · CC BY 4.0 (OECD terms and conditions) · updated annual, except the snapshots noted per indicator

How this was computed

Data used: most recent value in 2010-2025; values come from 2015–2025. To adjust for income, each measure is first predicted from GDP per person (in percentage terms, on a log scale) with a straight-line fit. Only what is left over is then compared. This is called a partial correlation. The line is drawn the standard way (ordinary least squares), which picks the line that comes closest to all the countries at once. The error margins allow for countries in the same region resembling each other, using 5 World Bank regions. The q-value corrects for testing all 12,497 pairs at once, using the Benjamini–Hochberg method. Underlying data last updated DYB 2024. How the country data works · explore Internet users and PISA reading

This page shows that two measures go together. It does not show that Internet users changes PISA reading, or the reverse. These figures also describe countries, not individual people. See the ecological fallacy.

More links with Internet users or PISA reading