Figure CNF4.2 shows the average numeracy scores of this PILNA cycle and of year four students in Small Island States in previous PILNA cycles. The score in 2021 was lower than in all previous PILNA cycles, while the standard deviation for this group was greater than all previous PILNA cycles. This means that the distribution of overall numeracy scores in 2021 was more spread out than in previous PILNA cycles. More analysis needs to be done to understand whether these differences in scores are statistically significant.

Standard deviation shows how close data points are to the average. A lower standard deviation means that data points are, overall, closer to the average; a higher standard deviation means that data points are, overall, further away from the average.