2025 NAPLAN national results broadly stable as participation rates bounce back
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority
Embargoed until 0100am AEST on 30 July 2025
MEDIA RELEASE
2025 NAPLAN national results broadly stable as participation rates bounce back
Latest data from the 2025 NAPLAN assessments show that performance is broadly stable at a national level, with 2 out of 3 students at the “Strong” or “Exceeding” proficiency level for their reading, numeracy and writing skills, and one in 10 students at the “Needs additional support” level across all year groups and domains.
The NAPLAN National Results released today (30 July 2025) by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) also show that participation rates across all years and domains have rebounded to pre-COVID levels, reaching 93.8% – the highest level since 2017.
Encouragingly, the NAPLAN National Results indicate higher NAPLAN scores on average across Years 5, 7 and 9 in numeracy, particularly among stronger students, as well as a reportable increase, from 2023 to 2025, in the percentage of Indigenous students achieving “Exceeding” in writing and numeracy at both Years 7 and 9.
Years 5, 7 and 9 students who participated in NAPLAN 2025 are the first students to have completed 2 assessments since the introduction of the new proficiency levels in 2023. This means additional data on student growth is included in the 2025 NAPLAN National Results. This information provides an important benchmark for comparing cohort growth in future years.
This year’s NAPLAN data also shows that, at the national level, proportions within proficiency levels were broadly stable between 2023 and 2025, although there were small increases and decreases across domains and year groups.
Commenting on the latest NAPLAN National Results, ACARA CEO, Stephen Gniel, said:
“As the only national assessment that helps teachers, parents and carers see how students are progressing in literacy and numeracy over time, NAPLAN is a key tool in the Australian education landscape.
“The 2025 results across all domains and year groups are broadly stable, with 2 out of 3 students at the “Strong” or “Exceeding” proficiency level for their reading, numeracy and writing skills, and one in 10 students needing additional support.
“The latest results also continue to highlight areas that need collective attention, such as supporting students from our regional and remote areas, those from a disadvantaged background, and Indigenous students.
“It’s encouraging to see higher NAPLAN scores on average across Years 5, 7 and 9 in numeracy, particularly among the stronger students. These may be small percentage changes, but the increases represent an additional 20,000 Australian students performing at the highest proficiency level – “Exceeding” – in 2025 compared to 2024.
“Another emerging trend is the increase since 2023 in the percentage of Indigenous students achieving “Exceeding” in writing and numeracy at both Years 7 and 9. Hopefully, these gains – and others like them – can be consolidated in 2026 and beyond.
“It’s also fantastic to see the national participation rates rebound, with Years 3 and 5 hitting their highest rates in over a decade, the Year 7 national participation rate the highest since 2017, and the Year 9 national participation rate exceeding the 90% mark for the first time since 2019.
“This year in particular, Queensland’s participation results are a testament to the efforts of its education community, who at the same time as preparing for the NAPLAN tests, along with the NSW education authorities, were also dealing with the impact of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
“When you consider this, the fact that Queensland achieved its highest participation rate across all year levels since 2019 at 89.7% is an impressive achievement. This also demonstrates the adaptability of the NAPLAN program schedule to support schools impacted by circumstances beyond their control to take part in this important national assessment.”
This year’s NAPLAN National Results also show:
- In reading, the average proportion of students who achieved at “Exceeding” and “Strong” levels in 2025 was 68.2% (compared to 67.0% in 2024), increasing from Year 3 (65.7%) to Year 5 (72.9%), then dropping in Year 7 (69.0%) and in Year 9 (65.1%).
- In reading, the average proportion of students who achieved at “Needs additional support” levels in 2025 was 9.3% (compared to 10.3% in 2024), decreasing from Year 3 (10.8%) to Year 5 (7.5%), and increasing in Year 7 (8.9%) and Year 9 (9.8%).
- In numeracy, the average proportion of students who achieved at “Exceeding” and “Strong” levels in 2025 was 66.8% (compared to 65.5% in 2024), increasing from Year 3 (64.0%) to Year 5 (68.9%), remaining relatively stable in Year 7 (68.5%) and then dropping in Year 9 (65.6%).
- In numeracy, the average proportion of students who achieved at “Needs additional support” levels in 2025 was 9.2% (compared to 9.5% in 2024), decreasing from Year 3 (9.4%) to Year 5 (7.8%), increasing again in Year 7 (9.5%) and Year 9 (10.2%).
To access the full 2025 NAPLAN National Results, including information about the socio-educational profile of each jurisdiction, please visit: www.acara.edu.au/naplanresults.
//ENDS
ACARA Media line – phone: 0414 063 872 (virtual line – do not text) and email [email protected]
BACKGROUND
Further information about the NAPLAN National Results
The NAPLAN National Results provide nationally comparable data on the 2025 national and state/territory results for each test domain and year level assessed, and by gender, Indigenous status and language background other than English.
The demographic results in 2025 reflect trends in other national assessments and previous NAPLAN results, with female students outperforming male students in literacy, and higher results tending to align with students from the highest socio-educational backgrounds, in urban areas and from non-Indigenous backgrounds.
- Nationally, a higher proportion of Indigenous students need additional support compared to the overall student population. For example, across all year groups:
- in reading, around one in 3 Indigenous students (30.8%) are in the “Needs additional support” level, while fewer than one in 10 non-Indigenous students (7.6%) fall into that proficiency level.
- in numeracy, one in 3 Indigenous students (32.3%) are in the “Needs additional support” level, while fewer than one in 10 non-Indigenous students (7.4%) fall into that proficiency level.
- The average NAPLAN scores for all year levels and all domains for students from the highest socio-educational background (measured by either parental education or parental occupation) were substantially above those from the lowest.
- A lower proportion of students in very remote schools are rated as “Strong” or “Exceeding” compared with students in major city schools. For example, across all year groups:
- in reading, 22.8% of students from very remote schools are in this category, compared to 71.9% of students from major city schools
- in numeracy, 21.9% of students from very remote schools are in this category, compared to 70.6% of students from major city schools.
- Female students outperformed male students in writing, achieving average NAPLAN scores above boys in every year group, with higher percentages of female students at “Strong” or “Exceeding” levels, notably 71.1% of female students compared to 57.0% of male students in Year 7 and 69.1% of female students compared to 53.9% of male students in Year 9.
- Male students generally outperformed female students in numeracy. There were 6.1% fewer female students in Year 3 and 8.0% fewer female students in Year 5 achieving in the “Exceeding” level compared to male students.
The NAPLAN assessments
NAPLAN was successfully undertaken in schools across the country in March 2025. A record 4.5 million online tests were submitted by over 1.3 million students in 9,477 campuses and schools across Australia.
The NAPLAN proficiency levels are:
- Exceeding: the student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing.
- Strong: the student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing.
- Developing: the student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing.
- Needs additional support: the student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes that are expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.
Additional information on the proficiency levels and the literacy and numeracy skills at each level is available on the National Assessment Program (NAP) website (www.nap.edu.au). The proficiency levels were validated by the expert judgement of teachers, who used student responses to NAPLAN questions linked to the Australian Curriculum to identify what students should be able to answer at the time of testing in each year, to be considered as having met a challenging but reasonable expectation.
NAPLAN tests are one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process. They assess numeracy and literacy only. Parents and carers should speak to their child’s school or teacher to discuss their child’s overall progress.
NAPLAN test incident report 2025
ACARA has also published the NAPLAN test incident report 2025, which sets out that of the approximately 4.5 million NAPLAN tests sat by over 1.3 million students nationally, there were no substantiated cheating breaches on the part of a school. The substantiated incidents after aggregation related to security breach (7) and “general” breach (44).
There was a total of 51 substantiated aggregated incidents, compared with 53 substantiated aggregated incidents in 2024 and 61 in 2023. The number of reported test incidents is extremely small and does not affect overall NAPLAN results.
Key Facts:
ACARA has produced a NAPLAN participation animation and 2 NAPLAN infographics which you can access at https://nap.edu.au/resources/assets
Contact details:
Phone: 0414 063 872 (virtual line – do not text)
Email [email protected]