I'd steer clear from comparing countries based on Functional Illiteracy because the US is the only country that officially uses that definition and consistently

I'd steer clear from comparing countries based on Functional Illiteracy because the US is the only country that officially uses that definition and consistently collects data about this - which is good, because it is a forcing function for us to worker harder at solving functional illiteracy as well. That said, Germany's functional illiteracy rate is estimated to be comparable to the US [0] It's a similar story with PISA as well - most other countries use it as a dick measuring contest by testing at gifted schools, but the NCES tries to randomize PISA testing in order to actually benchmark subnational performance and identify laggards. [0] - https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-31821-001 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-31821-001