On December 10th 2023, the results of the latest OECD survey on adult skills, conducted in 2023 as part of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), were released. This edition of the survey involved 31 countries and global economies, including Portugal. The collected data characterise the population aged 16 to 65 residing in the participating countries according to their literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving skills. The Portuguese sample consists of 3,160 individuals who provided complete responses to the questionnaire.
Portugal stands out in this survey as the European country with the lowest overall levels of literacy and numeracy (scoring 235 and 238 points, respectively, i.e., 25 points below the OECD average) and the second-lowest globally, surpassed only by Chile. Statistically, Portugal’s results are comparable to those of Lithuania and Poland.
Indeed, on the six-point scale used by the OECD to summarise the results of the literacy and numeracy tests – “below level 1,” “level 1,” “level 2,” “level 3,” “level 4,” and “above level 4” – around 40% of adults in Portugal score at or below level 1. This means that 4 in 10 adults are only capable of performing reading, calculation, and comprehension tasks with very low complexity. Such tasks do not require the interpretation of implicit meanings, the decoding of lengthy texts, or the consideration of multiple data points and instructions simultaneously, for example.
From an international perspective, other European countries also achieve results significantly below the OECD average in the three domains assessed by PIAAC, including Croatia, France, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, and Spain – mostly countries from Eastern, Baltic, and Southern Europe. In contrast, leading the rankings for literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving are Northern European countries – Finland, Norway, and Sweden – as well as the Netherlands and Japan.
It is worth noting that the results reveal an overall negative trend in these indicators across most participating countries compared to the previous round of the survey (in which Portugal did not participate). The Nordic countries are the only exceptions to this trend, having significantly improved both literacy and numeracy levels among their adult populations.
However, little attention has been given to the impact of inequalities – particularly those related to age, gender, and educational attainment – on Portugal’s results. Some of the most notable disparities, specifically focusing on literacy skills, are highlighted below:
- In Portugal, literacy inequalities between generations are significantly greater than in many OECD countries. Portuguese youth aged 16 to 24 achieve the highest literacy levels in the country (258 points), while older adults (55–65 years) have the lowest scores (213 points). This represents a generational gap of 44.8 points, compared to an average youth advantage of 29.5 points across the OECD.
- Among Portuguese youth, 22.3% score at or below level 1 in literacy – a figure relatively close to the OECD average for this age group (18%). In contrast, 59.9% of older adults in Portugal fall within this low literacy range, a significant disparity when compared to their peers in other countries (37.6%).
- Portugal performs particularly poorly among adults with lower educational attainment (i.e., below upper secondary education). In this group, 70% score at or below level 1 in literacy, 8.2 percentage points higher than the OECD average. However, these adults in Portugal outperform their counterparts in countries such as the United States, South Korea, Switzerland, and Austria.
- Among adults with higher education or tertiary qualifications, Portugal’s results are closer to the OECD average. Here, 15% of adults exhibit very low literacy levels, 2.2 percentage points above the average for other countries.
- In Portugal, as in other OECD countries, there does not appear to be a significant direct relationship between gender and literacy skills, with men and women achieving similar average results. However, when adjusted for other characteristics – such as age, education levels, and other sociodemographic factors – the data reveal that women in Portugal score, on average, 5.8 points higher than men with similar profiles. This is the highest gender-adjusted advantage in the OECD, followed by Spain and Flanders, where similarly significant differences are observed.
- Cross-referencing gender and age provides further insights, showing that older Portuguese women experience the greatest disadvantage compared to men (the second highest in the OECD), scoring on average 4.8 points lower in literacy tests. In contrast, among younger individuals, the gender gap is not significant (1.1 points), and among those aged 25 to 44, women in Portugal outperform men by 3.3 points.
- Portugal ranks 11th among OECD countries in terms of the positive impact of having parents with tertiary education on literacy skills. Adjusted results – which account for the effects of other sociodemographic factors – show that adults with tertiary-educated parents score 28.5 points higher than those whose parents have lower qualifications, 2.9 points above the OECD average. However, this inequality is even more pronounced in countries such as Switzerland, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Poland, and the Czech Republic.
In summary, Portugal’s poor literacy results are better understood through a focus on inequalities rather than overall scores. Firstly, this approach highlights that some countries perform relatively worse than Portugal in certain indicators or within specific population groups, particularly among the less educated. Secondly, it sheds light on the specificities of the Portuguese case, particularly the significant generational and educational gaps underpinning the poor literacy outcomes. Compulsory education only extended to include upper secondary education in 2009, widening the gap in educational access between older and younger generations – a key predictor of literacy levels.
Furthermore, the strength of inequalities between education systems is evident in the survey. While it is true that “our graduates have lower literacy levels than Finnish secondary school graduates,” the same is true for more than half of the countries surveyed and is even more pronounced among graduates from Spain, Italy, South Korea, Slovakia, and Poland, for example. As Schleicher & Scarpetta (2024) note in their analysis of the main results, these findings reflect historical variations in the quality and reach of national education systems, particularly in their ability to effectively transmit key skills for adulthood in societies increasingly shaped by rapid social and technological change. The less severe literacy gaps observed among younger generations in Portugal may indicate a positive sign of intergenerational improvement in educational opportunities, a point worth emphasising.
We conclude with a reflection on the potential relationship between declining literacy levels and social and political polarisation, as suggested by Schleicher & Scarpetta (2024). It is no coincidence that, in Portugal – as in other countries at the lower end of the rankings (and contrary to trends in leading nations) – individuals with lower literacy levels expressed greater confidence in their ability to influence political affairs in 2023 than their peers with higher literacy levels. Nearly all these countries have experienced a significant rise in radical right-wing parties and movements in recent years, and Portugal is no exception. At the same time, we know that identification with these parties tends to be stronger among populations “left behind” by technological progress and economic development. These groups are predominantly composed of older men with low educational attainment – the same groups with the poorest literacy results in Portugal. It is therefore essential to consider the adverse effects of low literacy levels through a multidimensional lens, taking into account the concentration of vulnerability indicators among population groups particularly susceptible to far-right discourse.
References
Castro, C. (2024). Iliteracia é a palavra-chave. Jornal Público, artigo de opinião, 19/12/2024. https://www.publico.pt/2024/12/19/opiniao/opiniao/iliteracia-palavrachave-2116187.
Deodato, D. (2024). “‘Left behind places’: a geographical etymology”, de Andy Pike e colegas (2023). Recensões OD, Lisboa, Observatório das Desigualdades / CIES-Iscte. https://www.observatorio-das-desigualdades.com/2024/12/09/left-behind-places-a-geographical-etymology-de-andy-pike-e-colegas-2023/.
OECD (2024a), Do Adults Have the Skills They Need to Thrive in a Changing World? – Survey of Adult Skills 2023. Paris, OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/b263dc5d-en.
OECD (2024b), Survey of Adult Skills – Reader’s Companion. Paris, OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/3639d1e2-en.
Schleicher, A. & Scarpetta, S. (2024). Survey of Adult Skills 2023 – Insights and Interpretations. Paris, OECD. https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/support-materials/2024/12/survey-of-adult-skills-2023_1ab54c9e/PIAAC2024_InsightsInterpretations_FULL.pdf.
By Adriana Albuquerque (written 21/12/2024; published 08/01/2025).
