Results trends 2024: A Levels

Results trends 2024: A Levels 16 August 2024

More than 800,000 A Level results were issued to students in England this summer.

Results for this year’s A Levels were similar to those awarded in 2023. The approach to grading returned to pre-pandemic arrangements in England last year, and this year Northern Ireland and Wales have completed their transition to pre-pandemic arrangements.

Every year there are small fluctuations in results. This can be due to changes in the cohort of students and changes to qualifications and course choices over time

Overall outcomes
Overall A Level results in England were similar to 2023:

9.3% of grades were at A* (8.9% last year).
27.6% of results were at grade A and above (26.5% last year).
76% of results were at grade C and above (75.4% last year).
The majority of A Level students (66%) took 3 A Levels. Only 5.2% took 4 A Levels.
Regional disparities continue between the highest and lowest performing regions with London having 31.3% of grades at A/A* and East Midlands 22.5%.

Popularity of subjects (UK wide)

According to numbers of entries, maths remains the most popular A Level subject, accounting for 12.1% of all entries. The number of students taking maths A Level exceeded 100,000 for the first time with entries rising by 10.9%.
The ten most popular A Level subjects in terms of entries in 2024 were: maths (107,427 entries), psychology (78,556), biology (74,367), chemistry (62,583), history (47,297), business studies (44,961), sociology (44,359), art and design subjects (43,668), physics (43,114) and economics (40,451).
Further maths had the biggest percentage increase in entries - up 19.9% (to 18,082). Physics entries increased by 12.3% (to 43,114) and computing entries were up by 11.3% (to 20,370).
Subjects decreasing in popularity included sociology (down 6.5% to 44,359 entries), drama (down 5.9% to 8,654), geography (down 5.1% to 36,314), psychology (down 2.4% to 78,556) and history (down 2.2% to 48,297).

AS
AS entries decreased to 140,287 (down by 0.6%).

Extended Project
Entries for the Extended Project Qualification decreased to 36,114 (down by 2.7%).

Age profiles
Entries from UK 18 year-olds account for over 90% of all UK A Level entries. Across the UK, there was a 1.3% increase in 18 year-olds taking A Levels (the 18 year old population rose by 0.9%). Entries from students aged 17 and under increased by 5%, and entries from students aged 19 and over increased by 14%.

Gender patterns
Across the UK, female students made up 54% of all A Level entries. Whilst variation can be seen across subjects, male students achieved slightly more A* grades (9.5% of A* grades were awarded to males with 9.1% of A* grades awarded to females). Female students achieved slightly more A*-A grades (28% of A*-A grades were awarded to females with 27.6% of A*-A grades awarded to males).

Progression to Higher Education
As of first thing on results day, 32% of all English 18-year-olds had been accepted into university with 75% of them being accepted into their first-choice institution (up from 71.6% last year). Of applicants with a confirmed place, 4.3% (18,100) held a deferred place (up 7.6% from last year).

The top three subjects with the largest increase in total placed applicants were engineering and technology (+11% on last year), architecture, building and planning (+9%) and law (+9%). UCAS reported that there were just under 30,000 courses available in UCAS clearing at the start of results day.

A full breakdown of grades achieved by subject and gender is available on the JCQ website.

Ofqual will publish an equalities analysis, setting out the differences in results between students with different characteristics, in the autumn.

Our summaries of this year’s results trends for GCSEs and VTQs are also available.