More than a third of 15-year-olds across the EU struggle with maths, according to the European Commission's first look at the PISA 2025 results. The share of students with weak basic skills keeps rising.

Maths trips up 33.9% of students, reading 31.3%, and science 25.9%. The EU wants all three figures below 15% by 2030.

At the top end, 6.8% of students excelled at maths, 6.4% at science and 4.8% at reading. The EU's 2030 goal is for at least 12% of students to reach that top level.

No EU country has hit the 2030 target for reading or science, and only two have managed it for maths. The Commission's analysis says the EU is falling short of its 2030 goals both on cutting the number of weak students and on raising the number of top performers.

In science, disadvantaged students are about four times more likely to be among the weak performers than their better-off classmates.

The findings will feed into a package of education plans the Commission is drawing up to help EU countries. It aims to support schools and teachers and bring in systematic training in AI literacy to reverse the decline.