Finnish, Japanese, and Dutch Adults Lead in Literacy, Numeracy, and Problem-Solving Skills

The OECD has published a new Survey of Adult Skills, examining proficiency in literacy, numeracy, and adaptive problem-solving across different countries. According to the report, Finnish, Japanese, and Dutch adults outperformed their peers in other nations.

At the top of the rankings were Finns, who excelled in all three categories. However, in adaptive problem-solving, they shared the leading position with the Japanese.

On average, across OECD countries, 18% of adults lack even the most basic level of proficiency in any of the measured domains. In contrast, only 7% of Japanese adults fell into this category.

Interestingly, first-generation immigrants in Finland performed significantly worse than ethnic Finns, with the largest gap in reading proficiency among all the countries surveyed.

This finding may have implications for immigration policy, particularly in decisions regarding work-based immigrants or quota refugees. Unfortunately, the OECD report did not provide details about the immigrants’ countries of origin.

Nevertheless, this data should be obtained to inform policymakers, as questions surrounding immigration policy are highly relevant at present. Some green-left opposition politicians advocate for accepting immigrants from all countries without consideration of ethnic or religious backgrounds. Recently, they urged the government to reject measures that assess immigrants' potential performance in Finnish working life and society.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Immigration Policy Should Be Based on Evidence
10% of Foreign Students in Finland Failed to Meet Residence Requirements
Humanitarian immigration does not provide a solution to Finland's demographic dependency ratio

Humanitarian immigration does not provide a solution to Finland's demographic dependency ratio

Finnish people are no longer having enough children for the population to renew itself. Therefore, humanitarian immigration has been justified by the demographic dependency ratio.

This idea works if the incoming population, along with their descendants, performs equally well in the labor market as the native population. However,  individuals coming from developing countries—often illiterate and at least less educated than Finns—are unable to do so.

However, the situation could—at least in principle—be saved by their descendants, who attend the same schools as the native children. Additionally, they are fluent in Finnish, unlike their parents.

Unfortunately, recent data indicates that a large portion of immigrant-background students in Finland are considered weak performers according to the PISA definition. In mathematics, as many as 58 percent of first-generation immigrant-background students and 43 percent of second-generation students are weak performers. Among native students, the percentage of weak mathematics performers was 22 percent.

The literacy rates do not look any better either. A staggering 61 percent of first-generation immigrant-background students and 39 percent of second-generation students have poor literacy skills. This means that, according to OECD definitions, they do not possess sufficient knowledge and skills to participate fully in societal functions, such as further education and the labor market.

Finland's Minister of Education Anders Adlercreutz (Swedish People´s Party) considers these results concerning. There is reason for concern, as a varying number of people from developing countries have been accepted annually since 1990.

From the perspective of the dependency ratio, as mentioned above, it is also problematic that the employment rate of individuals with foreign backgrounds is about 10–15 percentage points lower, and the unemployment rate is approximately 5–10 percentage points higher than that of native Finns. And these figures include not only humanitarian immigrants but also foreign workers, among whom a significantly larger proportion is likely engaged in the labor market than among humanitarian immigrants.

Based on the above, it appears that humanitarian immigration is not a solution to the demographic dependency ratio in Finnish society. Nor can it be assumed that they will be able to maintain Finland's standard of living at the same level as it has been in recent decades.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Sweden is Soon Set to Surpass the One Million Mark for Illiterate People
The Stabber Killed Three People in an Extremely Multicultural City
Sweden already in trouble - Finland following