5,924 pupils from Denmark participated in PISA 2009. The participants were divided between 285 educational institutions, with pupils from state schools, basic independent schools and continuation schools as well as a few students from upper-secondary schools participating.
The Danish pupils’ reading and science skills were still close to the average for OECD countries; while their level in mathematics, despite some decline, was still above the OECD average. This was shown by the figures from the PISA study in 2009, in which 400,000 pupils from 65 countries took part.
Finland was the only non-Asian country in the top five in terms of reading and science. Finland had the sixth-best average in the mathematics test. Among the 65 countries participating, Denmark was number 24; and among the OECD countries, Denmark was number 18. The reading results of the Danish pupils were lower than the results of the pupils from the other Nordic countries. Icelandic, Norwegian and Finnish pupils performed significantly better than Danish pupils. In fact, the results of the Norwegian and Icelandic pupils improved considerably from PISA 2006 to PISA 2009.
Apart from Finland, the countries and regions that scored best in PISA 2009 were East Asian countries. Shanghai and Hong-Kong took first place. But these results did not reflect the level in the rest of China, as these two regions are the most advanced in the country.
