World Bank · Education

PIRLS: Fourth grade students reaching the advanced international benchmark in reading achievement

Fourth grade students reaching the advanced international benchmark in reading achievement (%) is the share of fourth grade students scoring at least 625 on the reading assessment. When reading Literary Texts, students at the advanced international benchmarking level can: A) Integrate ideas and evidence across a text to appreciate overall themes, and B) Interpret story events and character actions to provide reasons, motivations, feelings, and character traits with full text-based support. When reading Informational Texts, students at the advanced international benchmark can A) Distinguish and interpret complex information from different parts of text, and provide full text-based support, B) Integrate information across a text to provide explanations, interpret significance, and sequence activities, and C) Evaluate visual and textual features to explain their function. The procedure for identifying International Benchmarks changed from the PIRLS 2001 method of using percentiles to a method based on scores that do not change from PIRLS cycle to cycle. In PIRLS 2001, the Advanced benchmark was called the "Top 10% Benchmark" (90th percentile score), which corresponded to a scale score of 615. The 2001 data in this database were recalculated based on a 625 Advanced Benchmark score and are different than the data found in the 2001 PIRLS report. Data reflects country performance in the stated year, but may not be comparable across years or countries. Consult the PIRLS website for more detailed information: http://timssandpirls.bc.edu/

Coverage: 58 of 238 countries
Latest data: 2016
Series: 58
Unit: percent
Licence: CC BY 4.0
Retrieved: 2026-11-07
Indicator: pirls-fourth-grade-students-reaching-the-advanced-international
Interva ID: worldbank-pirls-fourth-grade-students-reaching-the-advanced-international

Recency

stale

data to 2016; catalog to 2025

Provenance

2 steps

as the publisher declares it

Versions

catalog snapshots

Citation

BibTeX + CSL

versioned permalink

Quality profile

This profile describes what Interva can measure in the data. It does not claim the dataset is accurate, complete, or suitable for a particular use.

Recency

Latest observation is 2016; the catalog broadly reports to 2025, so this data is 9 year(s) behind (stale).

Method: Compares the dataset's latest non-projected period with the year most datasets in the catalog end in. Up to 2 years behind is current — annual data is routinely published a year or two late — and more than 5 is stale. Measured from the data, not from when Interva last crawled it.

Temporal completeness

27%

46 of 58 series skip at least one year inside their own span; the median series reports 27% of its years.

Method: Per series, years present divided by years from its first to its last observation; the median across series is reported. Annual periods are assumed, which holds for every series in the catalog today.

Geographic coverage

Measured

Covers 58 of the 238 countries in the catalog.

Method: Counts distinct geographies with at least one observation. Not scored: a regional dataset covering its region completely is not deficient for omitting the rest of the world.

History depth

Measured

The median series has 3 observations; the earliest begins in 2001.

Method: Counts non-projected observations per series. Not scored: a long history is useful for trend work and irrelevant for a cross-section.

Revisions

Measured

No observation has been restated in any vintage Interva has recorded.

Method: Counts values the publisher changed between Interva's publishes. Not scored: revising estimates is ordinary and often a sign of care, and the count is here so a reader citing a figure knows whether it moves.

Schema conformity

Not assessed

No declared schema or validation rules are attached to this dataset yet.

Validity

Not assessed

No field-level validation rules are attached to this dataset yet.

Consistency

Not assessed

Cross-series consistency rules are not defined yet. The obvious first one — whether two publishers measuring one concept agree within a stated tolerance — is a candidate.

2 scored from the data, 3 described without a score, 3 not assessed. Pipeline integrity: all 5 checks pass. Assessed 2026-11-07.

By country

PIRLS: Fourth grade students reaching the advanced international benchmark in reading achievement for each of the 58 countries it covers, with the full history.

Argentina 2001–2001
Australia 2011–2016
Austria 2006–2016
Azerbaijan 2011–2016
Bahrain 2016–2016
Belize 2001–2001
Bulgaria 2001–2016
Canada 2011–2016
Chile 2016–2016
Colombia 2001–2011
Croatia 2011–2011
Cyprus 2001–2001
Czechia 2001–2016
Denmark 2006–2016
Egypt 2016–2016
Finland 2011–2016
France 2001–2016
Georgia 2006–2016
Germany 2001–2016
Greece 2001–2001
Hong Kong 2001–2016
Hungary 2001–2016
Iceland 2001–2006
Indonesia 2006–2011
Iran, Islamic Republic of 2001–2016
Ireland 2011–2016
Israel 2001–2016
Italy 2001–2016
Kazakhstan 2016–2016
Kuwait 2006–2016
Latvia 2001–2016
Lithuania 2001–2016
Luxembourg 2006–2006
Macao 2016–2016
Malta 2011–2016
Moldova, Republic of 2001–2006
Morocco 2001–2016
Netherlands 2001–2016
New Zealand 2001–2016
North Macedonia 2001–2006
Norway 2001–2016
Oman 2011–2016
Poland 2006–2016
Portugal 2011–2016
Qatar 2006–2016
Romania 2001–2011
Russian Federation 2001–2016
Saudi Arabia 2011–2016
Singapore 2001–2016
Slovakia 2001–2016
Slovenia 2001–2016
South Africa 2006–2016
Spain 2006–2016
Sweden 2001–2016
Trinidad and Tobago 2006–2016
Türkiye 2001–2001
United Arab Emirates 2011–2016
United States 2001–2016

Latest observations

Country	Period	Value	Unit
Australia	2016	16	percent
Austria	2016	8	percent
Azerbaijan	2016	2	percent
Bahrain	2016	2	percent
Bulgaria	2016	19	percent
Canada	2016	13	percent
Chile	2016	3	percent
Czechia	2016	10	percent
Denmark	2016	11	percent
Egypt	2016	0	percent

Provenance

Who produced these figures, as World Bank declares it — not inferred, and each line says which published field it was read from.

Produced by
PIRLS
International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS)
declared by worldbank in sourceOrganization
Read from
World Bank
Education Statistics
declared by worldbank in source

Versions

A vintage is a dated publish of the catalog. The current entry is a catalog snapshot; checksums are not recorded yet and are shown as such.

CurrentCurrent catalog snapshotchecksum not recorded

Related datasets

Literacy rate, adult total (% of people 15+)

World Bank · 170 series · same topic · same publisher

Literacy rate, youth (ages 15-24), gender parity index

World Bank · 173 series · same topic · same publisher

Literacy rate, youth female

World Bank · 173 series · same topic · same publisher

Literacy rate, youth total

World Bank · 172 series · same topic · same publisher

Literacy rate, adult male

World Bank · 170 series · same topic · same publisher

Literacy rate, youth male

World Bank · 173 series · same topic · same publisher

Compulsory education, duration

World Bank · 197 series · same topic · same publisher

School enrollment, primary (gross), gender parity index

World Bank · 206 series · same topic · same publisher

Citation

Version: catalog snapshot 2026-11-07. The record labels this as a catalog snapshot because immutable dataset releases are not stored yet.

World Bank (2026). PIRLS: Fourth grade students reaching the advanced international benchmark in reading achievement. Interva. https://interva.co/dataset/worldbank-pirls-fourth-grade-students-reaching-the-advanced-international (accessed 2026-11-07). catalog snapshot 2026-11-07.

BibTeX

@misc{interva-worldbank-pirls-fourth-grade-students-reaching-the-advanced-international,
  title        = {PIRLS: Fourth grade students reaching the advanced international benchmark in reading achievement},
  author       = {World Bank},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://interva.co/dataset/worldbank-pirls-fourth-grade-students-reaching-the-advanced-international}},
  note         = {Interva dataset worldbank-pirls-fourth-grade-students-reaching-the-advanced-international; catalog snapshot 2026-11-07},
  urldate      = {2026-11-07}
}

DOI: not assigned (not assigned). The permalink is versioned by catalog snapshot; a stable dataset DOI is a later step.

API access

Every fact on this page is available from the API.

curl https://interva-api.nq5kq4f69b5zj.eu-west-3.cs.amazonlightsail.com/datasets/worldbank-pirls-fourth-grade-students-reaching-the-advanced-international

curl -o worldbank-pirls-fourth-grade-students-reaching-the-advanced-international.csv https://interva-api.nq5kq4f69b5zj.eu-west-3.cs.amazonlightsail.com/datasets/worldbank-pirls-fourth-grade-students-reaching-the-advanced-international/download

curl "https://interva-api.nq5kq4f69b5zj.eu-west-3.cs.amazonlightsail.com/datasets/worldbank-pirls-fourth-grade-students-reaching-the-advanced-international/citation?accessed=YYYY-MM-DD"

curl https://interva-api.nq5kq4f69b5zj.eu-west-3.cs.amazonlightsail.com/datasets/worldbank-pirls-fourth-grade-students-reaching-the-advanced-international/quality

Full schema: https://interva-api.nq5kq4f69b5zj.eu-west-3.cs.amazonlightsail.com/docs

Open in the terminal to chart this series, compare it against other publishers, or export it with its provenance.