PIRLS 2021 International Database
The PIRLS 2021 International Database is available to researchers, analysts, and any individuals interested in the data collected and analyzed as part of PIRLS 2021. The database includes student achievement data as well as student, home, teacher, school, and national context data for 57 countries and 8 benchmarking participants. PIRLS 2021 is the fifth assessment cycle of PIRLS since 2001, providing 20 years of trends in reading achievement at the fourth grade.
PIRLS 2021 is the only international assessment of educational achievement at the fourth grade that successfully collected data during COVID-19’s disruption in students’ schooling. Consequently, the PIRLS 2021 International Database provides an extremely rich and valuable data source to research the impact of COVID-19 on teaching and learning reading.
The entire database and its supporting documents are described in the PIRLS 2021 User Guide for the International Database, 2nd Edition (Fishbein et al., 2024) and its three supplements. The data can be analyzed using the downloadable IEA IDB Analyzer (Version 5.0), an application developed by IEA Hamburg to facilitate the analysis of PIRLS data.
Because of the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on the PIRLS 2021 data collection, users should consult the User Guide, and other PIRLS 2021 publications cited in the User Guide, for important caveats in analyzing and interpreting the data.
The public use version of the database is provided below along with supporting documentation. A restricted use version of the PIRLS 2021 International Database is available to users who require access to variables removed from the public use version (see Chapter 2 of the User Guide). Users who require access to the restricted use version to conduct their analyses should contact the IEA through its Study Data Repository.
PIRLS 2021 International Database Downloads*
User Guide
Supplement 1 – International Versions of the PIRLS 2021 Context Questionnaires
Supplement 2 – National Adaptations of the International Context Questionnaires
Supplement 3 – Variables Derived from the Student, Home, School, and Teacher Context Data
Achievement Items Documentation
International Database
* As of February 28, 2024, the PIRLS 2021 International Database includes student process data files.
See User Guide, 2nd Edition for more information.
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