More than 814,000 A Level results were issued to students in England this summer, taken by over 313,000 students in 137 different subjects.

The total number of A levels being taken this year has actually fallen slightly despite an increase in the number of 18-year-olds.  Ofqual believes this could be a sign that young people are making different choices about what types of qualification suit them.

Overall outcomes
There has been a small increase in pass rates this year with 28.2% of all A Level entries graded at A or A* (27.6% last year).  This year, 77.7% of grades were C or above, up on 76% last year. Ofqual says one factor in this success could be that this year’s cohort made their A Level choices in 2023 which was the first year GCSE exams returned to normal after the pandemic, meaning that these students had a more accurate picture of their strengths to guide their choices.

The average number of A Levels taken per candidate is 2.6, the same as in 2024.  Two thirds of this year’s 18 year-old A Level cohort took 3 A Levels with only 2% of those achieving three A* grades.  Just over 5% took 4 A Levels.

Popularity of subjects (UK wide)
Maths (up 4.4 % to 112,138 entries), psychology (down 3.3% to 75,943) and biology (down 4% to 71,400) were the most popular A Level subjects this summer repeating the pattern from last year. The rising popularity of maths continues with a 21% increase in entries for A Level maths in last 10 years.  Further maths saw the largest rise in entries for any A Level subject (up 7.2% to 19,390 entries).

There was also growth in the numbers of students taking chemistry (up 1.5% to 63,538), physics (up 4.3% to 44,957 entries moving from 9th to 6th in the top 10 popular subjects) and economics (up 5.5% to 42,667).

Decreases in entries can be seen in history (down 5.5% to 44,717), geography (down 5.4% to 34,336), English literature (down 4.4% to 37,931), English language (down 4% to 12,734) and computing (down 2.8% to 19,796).

Gender patterns
Boys taking A Levels continue to achieve slightly more A*s than girls taking A Levels, with 9.9% compared to 9.1% of girls - and this year boys also achieved fractionally more A/A* grades.  However, there is variation at subject level making comparison less straightforward when boys are doing quite different subjects to girls at A Level.  Thousands more girls take A Levels also, with female entries accounting for 54% of all A Level entries, and girls are more likely than boys to be awarded a C grade or above.

Regional patterns 
The gap between the regions with the highest and lowest percentage of A/A* grades grew slightly this year.  32.1% of students in London achieved the highest grades (up 0.7%) whilst 22.9% of students from the North East achieved A/A* (down 1%).  Last year, the East Midlands was the region with the lowest number of A/A* grades but achievements at the higher grades have improved there the most this year (up 1.3% to 23.8%).

Progression to Higher Education
On results day, over 255,000 UK 18-year-olds were accepted into Higher Education (an increase of 4.7% on last year) with 82% of students placed at their first choice.  UCAS figures also show that engineering and technology, mathematical sciences and law are increasing in popularity.  Languages and Computing had fewer students placed this year when compared with last. Nearly 30,000 places were available in clearing on results day


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

Ofqual has published a statistical report on this year’s results for more in-depth analysis of outcomes in England.   Also available are interactive visualisations of outcomes by centre type, A Level grade combinations, and an interactive map of England showing A Level results in different subjects by grade and county.

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 will be available shortly.


Related links
Summary of this summer’s entries 
Blog: What might this year’s A Level entry trends tell the Curriculum and Assessment Review?