You can see a pattern where 55-64 has the lowest scores, then 45-54, then 35-44, than 25-34. Almost all countries are like that: younger generations have better skills than older ones.
And then we see a switch in many countries: 16-24 have lower scores than 25-34. There are some exceptions like Italy, Portugal or Ireland but in majority of countries young people are dumber than previous generation.
This article is at a level of 10-year-olds. They are talking about The Survey of Adult Skills. OECD does it every year. It’s part of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_the_International_Assessment_of_Adult_Competencies
Latest results are here: https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2024/12/do-adults-have-the-skills-they-need-to-thrive-in-a-changing-world_4396f1f1/b263dc5d-en.pdf
I think the article is commenting on this part:
You can see a pattern where 55-64 has the lowest scores, then 45-54, then 35-44, than 25-34. Almost all countries are like that: younger generations have better skills than older ones.
And then we see a switch in many countries: 16-24 have lower scores than 25-34. There are some exceptions like Italy, Portugal or Ireland but in majority of countries young people are dumber than previous generation.
Interesting how the “age gap” in the US for numeracy and literacy is conspicuously small. But relatively large for problem solving.
In others, you can see recent history in really humongous gaps.
Also, I can’t help but wonder how much of that is a “normal” trend? I was stupider, and would have tested worse, at 16. Maybe at 20.
I was thinking the same thing. We would have to look at results from 2015 for example.
And I found this:
This is from 2012. 16-24 had lower results than 25-34 so maybe it is a normal situation?
Interesting.
Yes that was my suspicion.
I think this would be a more solid trend if the 16-24 bracket ages, and ends up less intelligent when they’re 25-34.
BTW, there’s also PISA:
https://www.oecd.org/en/data/dashboards/pisa-education-and-skills/performance-trends.html