"The importance of maths" is one of the most searched phrases about education, and most of what it returns is a list of assertions. The evidence is better than the assertions: there are good studies on what maths qualifications are worth, on which maths predicts later success, on numeracy and adult life, and on the belief that some children are "not maths people". This page gives the ten reasons with the evidence behind each, what maths is for at each stage from 5 to 18, the research on "maths people", and the five habits that keep maths important at home without turning it into pressure. The printable has the ten reasons on one side and a maths-in-your-week log on the other.
Download the importance of maths sheet (PDF) (the ten reasons with the evidence, what matters at each age, the five home habits, and a seven-day log of maths met in ordinary life; two pages, free).
Ten reasons, with the evidence
| Reason | The evidence |
|---|---|
| 1. It pays. | British longitudinal studies (Dolton and Vignoles, 2002, and later work by the Institute for Fiscal Studies) find that an A-level in mathematics is associated with earnings about 10 percent higher at age 30, after accounting for other qualifications and background. US studies of high school maths coursework find similar premiums for completing algebra 2 and beyond. |
| 2. It opens careers. | The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that most of the fastest-growing, best-paid occupations (data science, software, engineering, health, finance, analytics) require quantitative skills; every one assumes algebra, most assume statistics, and the technical ones assume calculus. |
| 3. It is the language of the other subjects. | Physics is written in equations; chemistry in ratios and logarithms; biology and medicine in statistics; economics in calculus and graphs; computing in logic and algebra. A child weak in maths is capped in all of them. |
| 4. It builds reasoning. | Maths is the only school subject whose whole content is "show that this follows from that". Defining the question, checking a claim, following an argument to its end and noticing when it breaks are habits the subject trains directly and other subjects train by accident. |
| 5. It runs daily life. | Money (prices, interest, tax, a mortgage), time (journeys, schedules, time zones), measurement (cooking, DIY, doses), risk (a forecast, a medical statistic) and the numbers in every news story. The twelve equations most adults use weekly are in algebra in everyday life. |
| 6. Numeracy predicts adult outcomes. | The OECD's Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) finds that adults with low numeracy are more likely to be unemployed, to be in poor health, to report low trust and to be excluded from civic life, with effects independent of literacy. |
| 7. Early maths predicts later school success. | A study of six longitudinal datasets (Duncan and colleagues, 2007) found that maths skills at school entry predicted later achievement more strongly than early reading or attention; and fraction knowledge at 10 predicts algebra at 16 (Siegler and colleagues, 2012) better than any other measure. |
| 8. It is the gate to the degrees. | Engineering, computer science, physics, economics, medicine, architecture, statistics, finance and most of the sciences require calculus or advanced statistics for entry or in the first year; a child who leaves maths at 16 closes those doors before knowing they wanted them. |
| 9. It is where learning to persist is learned. | A problem that does not yield to the first attempt, worked at until it does, is the most reliable experience of productive struggle a child has in school; the research on self-efficacy finds those experiences transfer. |
| 10. It is beautiful, and that matters too. | Patterns, proofs, the fact that a formula on paper predicts a planet's position: children who meet maths as a thing worth understanding, not only a thing to pass, keep it for life. |
What matters at each stage
| Age | The maths that matters most | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 5 to 7 | Counting with meaning; place value; addition and subtraction facts; shapes and measuring | Number sense at school entry predicts later achievement across subjects |
| 7 to 9 | Multiplication facts automatic; fractions as pieces of a whole; reading a graph | The facts free the mind for everything after; fractions begin here |
| 9 to 11 | Fractions as numbers (equivalence, ordering, the four operations); decimals and percent; long multiplication and division | Fraction knowledge at 10 is the best single predictor of algebra at 16 |
| 11 to 14 | Ratio and proportion; negative numbers; algebra as a language; basic statistics | The bridge from arithmetic to abstraction; the placement decisions for the accelerated track |
| 14 to 16 | Algebra fluent; geometry and proof; the statistics of everyday life; the exam course (GCSE, IGCSE, Class 10, Algebra 2) | The qualification that the earnings studies measure |
| 16 to 18 | Calculus and statistics for the quantitative routes; applied maths for the rest | The gate to the degrees; A-level or AP maths is the premium in the earnings data |
"I'm not a maths person": what the research says
Three findings. First, the belief that maths ability is fixed is itself harmful: children who hold it (and children of parents who say it) choose easier problems, give up sooner and achieve less, in experiments and in surveys of whole school systems. Second, maths anxiety, which affects a large minority of children by age 10, lowers working memory during maths and so lowers performance independently of ability; it is caused by early timed tests, public mistakes and anxious adults, and it reverses with the methods in math anxiety in kids. Third, in our own teaching since 2018, the child described as "not a maths person" has, in nearly every case, a specific gap (fractions, multiplication facts, negative numbers) that made every later topic fail a little; close the gap and the identity changes within a term. There are differences in how quickly children learn maths, as in everything; there is no evidence of a group that cannot.
Five habits that keep maths important at home, without pressure
- Let maths appear in ordinary life, out loud: the bill, the score, the recipe, the journey, the discount. Children learn what matters from what adults use.
- Never say anything negative about maths. "I was never good at it" is heard as permission. Parents' maths anxiety transfers to children, in the studies, mainly through homework help; if you are anxious, help with reading and let someone else help with maths.
- Praise the method, the checking and the persistence, not speed or cleverness. "You checked every step" produces more checking; "you're so smart" produces avoidance of hard problems.
- Keep daily practice short and automatic: ten minutes of facts at 7, twenty minutes of homework at 11, the same time every day, no timer.
- Treat a wrong answer as information. Find the step where it went wrong, together, without comment on the mistake. That one habit prevents most maths anxiety.
Reading has the same evidence base and the same two-decade effect; the case for it is in the importance of reading for children. A child with twenty minutes of reading and twenty minutes of maths a day has the two habits that the research says matter most.
Download the importance of maths sheet (PDF)
Where to get help
A 1-on-1 online maths class with a tutor who holds a master's in mathematics, from grade 1 to calculus, every board: the gap found in the first class, the facts made automatic, fractions taught as numbers, the method praised and the working watched. The recording and a short note after every class, the same tutor all year, US$10 to $13 an hour. The subjects page lists every course; the free 30-minute first class is a real lesson on the topic the child is on this week.
Questions parents ask
1Why is maths important for students?
2Is maths really needed in everyday life?
3What is the most important maths for a child to learn?
4Is it true that some people are just not maths people?
5How can parents make maths important without pressure?
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Shobha
Founder and lead tutor, Science with Shobha
Teaching maths, science and English to children online since 2018. 500+ students, 20+ tutors, families in nine countries.