The overall GCSE pass rate across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland has remained stable this year, with 67.3% of all grades marked at 4/C and above. This figure represents a very slight decrease from the 67.4% recorded last year, matching the exact pass rate from 2019. The steady results signal a period of consistency following the significant disruptions of 2020 and 2021, when the Covid-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of exams and led to grades being determined by teacher assessments. However, beneath this stable surface lies a more complex picture, with a widening regional divide, a narrowing gender gap driven by falling female performance, and a controversial cycle of compulsory English and maths resits.
Within the individual nations, the proportion of GCSEs graded at 4/C or above showed minimal variation. England saw its pass rate dip slightly to 67%, down from 67.1% in 2025, while Northern Ireland experienced a minor increase to 83.6%, up from 83.5%. Meanwhile, the proportion of top grades across all three nations—those marked at 7/A or above—remained steady, rising very slightly to 22% this year from 21.9% last year.
Nearly a quarter of maths and English GCSEs were taken by people aged 17 and older this year. Specifically, these older candidates made up 24.3% of maths and English language grades in England, compared to 23.4% last year. Some of those older candidates will be mature students sitting exams for the first time, but most will be young people resitting papers. Under current rules in England, pupils who do not achieve at least a grade 4 in their maths and English GCSEs are required to continue studying these subjects alongside their post-16 courses, such as A-levels or T-levels. Although the Department for Education (DfE) states that resitting is not a mandatory requirement, colleges generally enter students into the exams when they believe they are ready.
This system has faced criticism for trapping young people in a cycle of exams they struggle to pass. Only 19.8% of English language entries and 15.3% of maths entries from candidates aged 17 and older in England achieved a grade 4 or higher, with both pass rates slipping since last year. Because these resit pass rates are significantly lower than those of 16-year-olds sitting the exams for the first time, they drag down the overall national grades in those subjects.
The exam board Cambridge OCR noted that "the number of resit entries is still going in the wrong direction," while the Association of School and College Leaders criticized the policy, stating that "force-feeding [young people] a relentless diet of GCSE English and maths in post-16 education is simply not working."
In response, the DfE stated that "future years won't face this demoralising cycle" due to a planned "stepping stone" qualification. Set to be introduced from 2028 for those who do not pass their GCSEs, this new Level 1 qualification will sit one rung lower than GCSEs. While the plan has been broadly welcomed, there are active calls from educators for students to be allowed to take this stepping stone qualification before they reach the point of sitting GCSEs, rather than waiting until after they have sat them.
The results also revealed that the gap between boys' and girls' pass rates across all three nations has narrowed to its lowest on record, standing at 5.8 percentage points this year compared to 6.2 last year and a peak of 9.5 in 2017. Earlier, the DfE counted this among the "positive signs of improvement" in this year's results. However, the narrowing of the gap is primarily due to a drop in girls' grades rather than an improvement in boys' performance, as boys' results rose only very slightly.
This trend aligns with analysis from the Education Policy Institute last year, which suggested that girls' performance has been "declining in absolute terms" since the pandemic, linking it to "worrying trends around girls' wellbeing," including worsening mental health and social media use.
In England, the regional divide has grown and remains stubbornly higher than it was before Covid. London recorded the highest pass rate at 71.7%, while the West Midlands again recorded the lowest at 62.4%, resulting in a 9.3 percentage point gap, up from 8.7 last year. This performance gap is wider than at any point in the decade leading up to the pandemic. The DfE said it was "committed to [tackling] entrenched inequality" through targeted support in areas with weaker performance. The government has also expressed a desire to give local leaders more influence over teenage education. Last month, Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced his intention to ensure teenagers have technical routes into careers tailored around local industries.
Subject choices showed notable shifts this year, with another sharp increase in the number of students taking statistics at GCSE. Conversely, French entries declined further, having been overtaken in popularity by Spanish for the first time last year. The most significant drop occurred in computing, which saw a 7.1% fall to 85,000 entries. An expert noted that "vibe coding"—making an app or website using AI rather than coding it manually—was currently "all the rage." However, they added: "I think potentially computer science is more important than ever in the age of AI." The expert concluded that "AI won't be able to replace a solid understanding of how software works, how technology can solve real-world problems, and how it can create a good user experience for example."
You'll see that boys' and girls' grades are looking more similar – though that's more to do with girls slipping than boys improving.
That's only very slightly down from 67.4% last year.
