The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies uses a 500-point scale to assess reading comprehension. To help interpret these scores, the scale is divided into six categories:

Below Level 1: Score below 176
Level 1: Score between 176 and 225
Level 2: Score between 226 and 275
Level 3: Score between 276 and 325
Level 4: Score between 326 and 375
Level 5: Score between 376 and 500

A person is deemed as having attained at least level 2 in reading comprehension when they are usually able to understand texts about unfamiliar topics, even if they have difficulty with tasks such as comparing and contrasting different texts or searching for digital texts on a particular topic that they do not know about.

A person is deemed as having attained at least level 2 in mathematics when they are usually able to answer questions requiring intermediate-level calculations, understand the mathematical information in a table and have no difficulty interpreting simple graphs but find tasks such as handling proportions or interpreting complex graphs more challenging.

The data for 2012 come from the study that was carried out from the third quarter of 2011 to the first quarter of 2012.

Indicator 4.6.1