Pupils in the UK are among the unhappiest in the world, according to new data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa).

In the “snapshot of students’ life satisfaction”, the UK was ranked 38th out of 48 countries, with 15-year-olds ranking their life satisfaction at 6.98 on average on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is the worst possible life and 10 is the best possible life.

Pupils in the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Costa Rica all rated their life satisfaction as more than 8 out of 10. But in the East Asian countries which do well in the Pisa science, maths and reading tests, pupils were more unhappy than in the UK.

Pisa is an international survey of countries’ educational systems, run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

 

Rank Country Average 1 Dominican Republic 8.50 2 Mexico 8.27 3 Costa Rica 8.21 4 Croatia 7.90 5 Finland 7.89 6 Colombia 7.88 7 Lithuania 7.86 8 Netherlands 7.83 9 Iceland 7.80 10 Russia 7.76 11 Montenegro 7.75 12 Switzerland 7.72 13 Thailand 7.71 14 Uruguay 7.70 15 France 7.63 16 Brazil 7.59 17 Austria 7.52 18 Estonia 7.50 19 Peru 7.50 20 Belgium (excl. Flemish) 7.49 21 Slovak Republic 7.47 22 Spain 7.42 23 Bulgaria 7.42 24 Qatar 7.41 25 Luxembourg 7.38 26 Chile 7.37 27 Latvia 7.37 28 Portugal 7.36 29 United States 7.36 30 Germany 7.35   OECD average 7.31 31 Ireland 7.30 32 United Arab Emirates 7.30 33 Poland 7.18 34 Hungary 7.17 35 Slovenia 7.17 36 Cyprus 7.06 37 Czech Republic 7.05 38 United Kingdom 6.98 39 Greece 6.91 40 Tunisia 6.90 41 Italy 6.89 42 Beijing-Shanghai-Jiangsu-Guangdon (China) 6.83 43 Japan 6.80 44 Macao 6.59 45 Taiwan 6.59 46 Hong Kong 6.48 47 South Korea 6.36 48 Turkey 6.12

Source: Pisa 2015: Vol III. Students’ Well being

Figure III.1.1