This article contains cross-national data on the environmental affection and cognition of adolescent students of varying levels of interest in ecosystem services and sustainability, socio-economic and demographic status, and media consumption patterns. The underlying source is the 2015 publicly released student questionnaire data file of the "Programme for International Student assessment (PISA)" (OECD, 2016) , which was used in the studies "Interest in the biosphere and students' environmental awareness and optimism: A global perspective" (Niankara and Zoungrana, 2018) and "Scientific media dieting and students' awareness and expectations about the environmental issues of deforestation and species extinction in the middle east and north America: An integrated cross cultural ecologic-economic analysis" (Niankara, 2018). By providing information on 7 major environmental issues (including deforestation, species extinction, air pollution, water shortage, greenhouse gas emission, genetically modified organism, and nuclear waste) in contemporary societies, for 18,7821 students from 50 countries worldwide, this data provides a unique opportunity to investigate various aspects of the world youth population׳s contribution to national sustainability and disease prevention initiatives.