Average TOEIC Listening and Reading Scores

If you've taken the TOEIC listening and reading exam, or the Test of English for International Communication, then you know how nerve-racking it can be to wait for your scores. This important examination of English skills is often used by potential employers to determine whether your level of communication is sufficient for employment, so you probably don't need to be told to take your results very seriously once you get them back.

Understanding Your Score

Unfortunately, knowing your scores won't always help you understand your chances of being hired. Even though many businesses and institutions have minimum TOEIC scores or proficiency levels that they require before giving you an interview, these levels are not the same across the board. Depending on where you have applied and for what positions, you may find that different institutions require very different base scores.

Of course, there are a number of factors at play that affect your performance and your likelihood of being hired. These include age, gender, educational background, college major (if applicable), English-speaking experience, vocational industry, type of job, and even the amount of time you spent studying for the test. Most hiring managers take these factors into account when interviewing and do not hire based on TOEIC scores alone.

Find out How You Compare

Wondering where you stand with the scores you've earned and how your performance compares with the standard? Look no further: here are the average 2018 TOEIC scores sorted by age, gender, country of birth, and education level of test-takers (some of the most important factors).

Though these averages won't tell you your own areas of strength and weakness, they might help you see your relative position among other test-takers more clearly. These listening and reading data sets were obtained from the 2018 TOEIC report on test-takers worldwide.

Remember that the highest possible score on each exam is 495. Anything over 450 is generally considered excellent and indicates no real area of weakness in using and understanding the English language. You'll also notice that, across the board, reading scores are lower than listening scores.

Average TOEIC Scores by Age

In this set of TOEIC listening and reading scores by age, you will notice that test-takers between the ages of 26 and 30 tend to perform best on this test with an average listening score of 351 and a reading score of 292. Across all countries, this accounts for 15% of test-takers.

Average TOEIC Scores by Gender

According to 2018 data, more men took the TOEIC standardized tests than women. Women outperformed men on the listening test by a mean of 21 points and on the reading test by a mean of nine points.

Average TOEIC Scores by Country of Birth

The following chart shows the mean reading and listening scores by the test-taker country of birth. You'll notice that these data are quite spread out and scores are largely influenced by the prominence of English in each country.

Average TOEIC Scores by Level of Education

Nearly half of TOEIC test-takers in 2018 were either in college on their way to earning undergraduate degrees at four-year universities or had already obtained their Bachelor's degrees. By highest level of education, here are average TOEIC scores.