Data literacy is broader than knowing how to calculate an average. It includes the ability to understand information, reason with numbers, solve unfamiliar problems, and use digital evidence in context. The OECD’s 2023 Survey of Adult Skills provides related measures rather than one universal data-literacy score, while Eurostat’s 2025 digital-skills indicator provides a broader digital context.
Contents
- Adult proficiency benchmarks
- Numeracy and quantitative evidence
- Education and applied skills
- Demographic and social gaps
- Digital information skills in the EU
- Data use inside organisations
Adult proficiency benchmarks
The OECD measures adult information-processing capability on a 0–500 PIAAC scale. In the 2023 Survey of Adult Skills, adults aged 16–65 across OECD countries averaged 260 points in literacy, 263 in numeracy, and 251 in adaptive problem solving. These domains are useful indicators for evidence-based decision making, but they should not be treated as a single, complete data-literacy test. (Survey of Adult Skills 2023
Finland recorded the highest country averages among participating OECD countries in both literacy and numeracy: 296 literacy points and 294 numeracy points. Finland also tied Japan for the highest adaptive-problem-solving average, with 276 points. These are country averages for the 2023 measurement period, not universal results for every adult in those countries.
The lower end of the distribution is substantial. At least 26% of adults were at Level 1 or below in literacy across OECD countries on average. The corresponding shares were at least 25% in numeracy and at least 29% in adaptive problem solving. Chile had 44% of adults at the two lowest proficiency levels in all three assessed domains, compared with 7% in Japan.
| PIAAC domain | OECD average, 2023 | Share at Level 1 or below | Highest reported country average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Literacy | 260 points | At least 26% | Finland, 296 points |
| Numeracy | 263 points | At least 25% | Finland, 294 points |
| Adaptive problem solving | 251 points | At least 29% | Finland and Japan, 276 points |
One education-related comparison is also clear: adults with tertiary education scored 33 points higher in literacy than adults with upper-secondary education on average. The gap describes an average association in the OECD results, not a guarantee that a particular credential produces a particular score.
Numeracy and quantitative evidence
Numeracy is especially relevant when a decision involves rates, quantities, uncertainty, or comparisons. Only 14% of adults reached the two highest numeracy proficiency levels, Levels 4 or 5, across participating OECD countries on average in 2023. Finland had the highest reported share, at 31%. At least 20% reached those levels in Denmark, Estonia, the Flemish Region of Belgium, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, and Switzerland. (Adult numeracy skills)
The OECD defines one standard deviation on the PIAAC numeracy scale as 58 score points. In its employment model, a one-standard-deviation increase in numeracy was associated with about a 1-percentage-point increase in the likelihood of employment. An additional three years of education was associated with about the same increase. These are descriptive model estimates, not causal advice.
The wage associations were larger in percentage terms. A one-standard-deviation increase in numeracy was associated with a 9% increase in hourly wages, while a one-standard-deviation increase in literacy was associated with an 8% increase. The figures describe relationships observed in the model; they do not establish that raising one skill alone will cause an individual’s wages to rise by that amount.
Results also changed over time, although not uniformly. Average numeracy proficiency improved in 8 of the 27 countries that participated in both PIAAC cycles. Finland and Singapore recorded the largest average gains, at 17 points each, between the earlier cycles conducted in 2012, 2014, or 2017 and the 2023 cycle. Average numeracy scores were stable in 12 of those 27 countries. (Survey of Adult Skills 2023: Insights and Interpretations)
Education and applied skills
Educational attainment is informative, but it does not fully describe applied data capability. In every participating country, the top 25% of high-school graduates scored higher in numeracy than the bottom 25% of tertiary graduates. In Italy, the top 10% of high-school graduates scored at least 10 points higher in numeracy than 75% of university-educated adults.
Finland illustrates how distributions can overlap. Finnish adults whose education ended after high school averaged 288 points in literacy. Finnish high-school graduates averaged more than 25 literacy points above tertiary-educated adults in Chile, Israel, Lithuania, and Poland. They outperformed most adults in 19 of the 31 participating countries and economies, including some university graduates. These comparisons concern measured proficiency, not the relative quality of national education systems as a whole.
The workplace context adds another dimension. About 1 in 3 workers across OECD countries were mismatched to their jobs by education or skills in 2023. Adults in jobs requiring less education than they possessed earned 12% less than peers in well-matched jobs. Overqualified adults were also 4 percentage points less likely to report high life satisfaction than well-matched peers. (Survey of Adult Skills 2023: Insights and Interpretations)
For decision making, the implication is practical: credentials can signal learning opportunities, but measured numeracy and literacy distributions overlap. Assessing whether people can interpret the evidence required for a task may reveal more than using education level as a complete proxy.
Demographic and social gaps
The 2023 OECD results show different patterns by domain. Women averaged 3 literacy points more than men. Men averaged 10 numeracy points more than women and 2 adaptive-problem-solving points more than women. These are population averages and do not describe every individual.
Family background was associated with larger average differences. Native-born adults with native-born parents outscored foreign-born adults with foreign-born parents by 44 literacy points, 38 numeracy points, and 32 adaptive-problem-solving points. Adults with at least one tertiary-educated parent outscored adults whose parents lacked upper-secondary education by 50 literacy points, 49 numeracy points, and 42 adaptive-problem-solving points.
The parental-education gap varied by country. In Germany and Switzerland, the literacy gap between adults with highly educated and low-educated parents was around 70 points. It was below 35 points in Sweden, the Slovak Republic, and Spain. The cross-country contrast indicates that social background and national context are both relevant when interpreting proficiency differences.
Some gender patterns changed between cycles. In eight countries where men previously had higher literacy scores than women, the gap had disappeared by 2023. Six countries—Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Israel, and New Zealand—moved from no prior literacy gender difference to a female advantage. Singapore’s male literacy advantage narrowed from 7 points in the previous cycle to 4 points in 2023. Norway was the only country where women’s literacy proficiency improved significantly while men’s did not. Norway’s foreign-born share among surveyed adults increased from 12% in 2012 to 20% in 2023, an important measurement-context change when comparing its cycles. (Survey of Adult Skills 2023: Insights and Interpretations)
Digital information skills in the EU
Eurostat’s 2025 basic-digital-skills indicator is a proxy based on selected activities across five competence areas, including information and data literacy. It is not a direct data-literacy test score. In the EU, 60% of people aged 16–74 had at least basic overall digital skills in 2025—20 percentage points below the EU’s 2030 target. (Towards Digital Decade targets for Europe)
National differences were wide. The Netherlands had the highest share, at 84%, followed by Ireland at 83%. Denmark and Finland each recorded 81%. Romania and Bulgaria had the lowest shares, at 32% and 38%, respectively.
Age and sex patterns were not identical. Across the EU, 59% of women and 62% of men aged 16–74 had at least basic digital skills. Among 16–24-year-olds, the figures were 76% for women and 73% for men. Among 25–34-year-olds, 75% of women and 74% of men had at least basic or above-basic skills. Among 65–74-year-olds, the shares were 29% for women and 38% for men.
Education and labour-market status also mattered. People with higher education had the highest basic-or-above-basic share, at 82%, including 50% with above-basic skills. Students had an 80% at-least-basic share and workers 69%, compared with 54% for unemployed people and 37% for retired or otherwise inactive non-students.
Data use inside organisations
Individual data literacy operates inside organisations that choose what evidence to collect and analyse. In 2025, 20% of EU enterprises used at least one artificial-intelligence technology. AI use reached 55% among large enterprises, 30% among medium-sized enterprises, and 17% among small enterprises.
Data analytics was more common than AI overall. Thirty-three percent of EU enterprises used analytics performed by their own employees, while 40% performed analytics internally or had another organisation perform it for them. The latter share reached 60% in Denmark and 56% in both Estonia and the Netherlands.
The available data sources show what kinds of evidence enterprises used for analytics:
- Transaction-record data: 26% of EU enterprises.
- Customer data: 18%.
- Social-media or web data: 11%.
- Open government or location data: 7%.
- Sensor data: 6%.
- Satellite data: 4%.
These enterprise figures describe organisations, not individual workers. They also show why data literacy cannot be reduced to personal numeracy: interpreting evidence depends on digital access, data quality, organisational processes, and the kinds of records available. (Towards Digital Decade targets for Europe)