Student Proficiency in Environmental Science and Geoscience by Country

Student proficiency in environmental science and geoscience measures how well 15-year-old students understand critical environmental topics including climate systems, ecosystems, natural resources, and Earth sciences. This indicator tracks the percentage of secondary students demonstrating adequate knowledge through international standardized assessments.

Understanding Environmental Science Proficiency

Environmental science proficiency is assessed through the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which evaluates 15-year-old students' ability to understand and apply scientific knowledge to environmental contexts. The assessment covers topics including climate change, biodiversity, natural resource management, pollution, and Earth systems. Students demonstrating proficiency can explain environmental phenomena, interpret scientific data, and understand the relationship between human activities and environmental impacts.

The data spans 29 countries with assessments from 2015 and 2019, revealing proficiency rates ranging from 10% to 43%. Turkey leads with 43% proficiency in 2019, followed by Iran (38%), Jordan (38%), and Bahrain (37%). These rates indicate that in most countries, less than one-third of 15-year-olds demonstrate adequate environmental science knowledge, highlighting significant global challenges in environmental education.

Trends and Changes (2015-2019)

Between 2015 and 2019, several countries showed notable improvements in student environmental science proficiency. Turkey demonstrated the strongest growth, increasing from 36% to 43% (+7 percentage points). Other countries with significant gains include Bahrain (30% to 37%, +7pp), Jordan (31% to 38%, +7pp), Egypt (27% to 34%, +7pp), and Saudi Arabia (26% to 32%, +6pp). These improvements suggest successful curriculum reforms and enhanced focus on environmental education in these nations.

Conversely, some countries experienced declining proficiency rates. Hong Kong dropped from 21% to 16% (-5pp), Ireland from 29% to 24% (-5pp), Norway from 30% to 24% (-6pp), and Chile from 17% to 13% (-4pp). These declines may reflect curriculum changes, competing educational priorities, or shifts in assessment difficulty. South Africa and New Zealand also showed modest decreases.

Several countries maintained stable proficiency rates, including Canada (28% both years), Israel (30% both years), and Malaysia (16% both years). The United States showed a slight decline from 33% to 30%, while Singapore improved modestly from 31% to 33%.

High-Performing Countries

Countries where more than 35% of students demonstrate environmental science proficiency include Turkey (43%), Iran (38%), Jordan (38%), and Bahrain (37%). Turkey's leadership reflects sustained investment in science education and curriculum emphasis on environmental topics. Middle Eastern countries (Iran, Jordan, Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia) show relatively strong performance, suggesting regional prioritization of environmental science education.

Mid-range performers (28-34%) include Singapore (33%), Egypt (34%), United Arab Emirates (34%), United States (33%), Iran (38%), and Oman (31%). These countries demonstrate solid but not exceptional student proficiency, with roughly one-third of students meeting proficiency benchmarks.

Countries Facing Challenges

Countries with proficiency rates below 20% face significant challenges in environmental science education. South Korea (14% in 2019) and Japan (14% in 2019) show surprisingly low proficiency despite strong overall education systems, suggesting curriculum gaps in environmental science or assessment methodology differences. Chile (13% in 2019) shows the lowest proficiency among countries with 2019 data, declining from already-low 2015 levels.

Malaysia (16%), Hong Kong (16%), and New Zealand (18%) also struggle with low proficiency rates. These results indicate that strong general education systems do not automatically translate to environmental science proficiency without specific curriculum focus, teacher training, and resource allocation for environmental education.

Regional Patterns

Middle Eastern countries generally outperform other regions, with Turkey (43%), Iran (38%), Jordan (38%), Bahrain (37%), UAE (34%), and Saudi Arabia (32%) all exceeding 30% proficiency. This regional strength may reflect curriculum emphasis on natural resource management and environmental challenges relevant to the region.

East Asian countries show mixed results. While Singapore performs well (33%), Japan (14%) and South Korea (14%) lag significantly behind despite strong PISA performance in other subjects. This suggests environmental science may receive less curriculum emphasis compared to other scientific disciplines in these education systems.

Western countries show moderate performance, with the United States (30%), Canada (28%), and Australia (23%) in the mid-range. European countries like Norway (24%), Ireland (24%), and Italy (24%) cluster around similar proficiency levels, while the United Kingdom (27% in 2015) lacks recent data.

Student Proficiency in Environmental Science and Geoscience by Country

Download

Excel (.xlsx) CSV PDF PNG

#	Country	2015 (%)	2019 (%)
1	Türkiye	36%	43%
2	Iran	33%	38%
3	Jordan	31%	38%
4	Bahrain	30%	37%
5	Egypt	27%	34%
6	United Arab Emirates	30%	34%
7	Singapore	31%	33%
8	Saudi Arabia	26%	32%
9	Oman	34%	31%
10	Israel	30%	30%
11	Kuwait	32%	30%
12	Qatar	28%	30%
13	United States	33%	30%
14	Canada	28%	28%
15	Ireland	29%	24%
16	Italy	25%	24%
17	Norway	30%	24%
18	Australia	21%	23%
19	South Africa	23%	19%
20	New Zealand	22%	18%
21	Hong Kong	21%	16%
22	Malaysia	16%	16%
23	Japan	11%	14%
24	South Korea	10%	14%
25	Chile	17%	13%
26	Argentina	14%	-
27	Botswana	19%	-
28	Thailand	13%	-
29	United Kingdom	27%	-

Data Context and Limitations

This data comes from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). PISA assesses 15-year-old students' scientific literacy, including environmental science and geoscience knowledge, every three years. The data presented covers the 2015 and 2019 assessment cycles.

"Proficiency" is defined as students performing at or above Level 2 on the PISA science scale for environmental and geoscience topics. This represents the ability to provide possible scientific explanations in familiar contexts, draw conclusions based on simple investigations, and demonstrate basic understanding of environmental phenomena.

Important limitations include: (1) Only 29 countries have comparable data for this specific environmental science indicator, (2) Some countries participated in 2015 but not 2019 (Argentina, Botswana, Thailand, UK), limiting trend analysis, (3) The assessment measures knowledge and understanding but not environmental attitudes or behaviors, (4) PISA participation is voluntary and not all countries participate, (5) The 2022 PISA cycle data may provide more recent information but is not yet fully available for this indicator.

The relatively low proficiency rates across most countries (typically 20-35%) reflect the challenging nature of environmental science content and the high benchmark standards set by PISA. These rates should be interpreted as measuring advanced scientific understanding rather than basic environmental awareness.