A Level Results Statistics (2026): Grades by Subject
28.5% of UK A level grades awarded in summer 2026 were A* or A, and 9.6% were A*, according to the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ). Both are slightly up on 2025 and above 2019, the last year before the pandemic, but far below the 44.8% A* or A of 2021. The pass rate (A* to E) held at 97.5%.
This page collects the official numbers: grade shares by year, subject, sex, UK nation and type of school. All figures count grades awarded, not students, unless stated. For what each grade means and how boundaries are set, see our A level grades guide.
Key statistics
28.5% of UK A level grades were A* or A in 2026, compared with 28.3% in 2025 (JCQ, August 2026).
9.6% of UK A level grades were A* in 2026, compared with 9.4% in 2025 and 7.7% in 2019 (JCQ).
97.5% of UK A level grades were a pass (A* to E) in 2026, the same as in 2025 (JCQ).
B was the most common A level grade in 2026, at 27.3% of grades, and 55.8% of grades were B or above (our calculation from JCQ).
The share of A* and A grades peaked at 44.8% in 2021, when grades were set by teachers, and returned to 27.2% in 2023 (JCQ).
906,425 A level entries were made in the UK in 2026, up 2.7% from 882,653 in 2025, by 349,917 students (JCQ).
Maths was the most popular A level, with 115,380 UK entries in 2026, and 17.7% of maths grades were A* (JCQ).
Further maths had the highest A* rate of any subject with more than 10,000 entries, 29.0% (JCQ, 2026).
Male students got more A* grades (10.2%) than female students (9.1%), but fewer A* to C grades (76.8% against 79.8%) in 2026 (JCQ).
48.6% of A level results at independent schools in England were A or above in 2026, against 25.4% across all state-funded schools (Ofqual).
Only 2.2% of 18-year-olds in England taking three A levels got three A* grades in 2026, 4,195 students (Ofqual).
A level grade distribution in 2026
Just over half of all A level grades are a B or better, and fewer than 1 in 10 is an A*.
UK A level grades, all subjects and ages, summer 2026 (906,425 entries). Cumulative shares from JCQ Table 1; single-grade shares are our calculation.
Grade
Share of grades
This grade or higher
A*
9.6%
9.6%
A
18.9%
28.5%
B
27.3%
55.8%
C
22.6%
78.4%
D
13.2%
91.6%
E
5.9%
97.5%
U (fail)
2.5%
100%
UK A level entries rose 2.7%, from 882,653 in 2025 to 906,425 in 2026, and the number of students taking A levels rose 2.4%, from 341,577 to 349,917 (JCQ press notice, 2026).
The 18-year-old population grew by 3.9%, faster than entries. 18-year-olds made 830,769 entries, 91.7% of the total (JCQ Table 1, 2026).
18-year-olds did slightly better than the overall cohort: 28.8% A* or A and 97.9% A* to E (JCQ Table 1, 2026).
In England, 320,505 students at 2,835 schools and colleges got A level results, taking 3 A levels on average (Ofqual, 2026).
63.9% of A level students in England took exactly three A levels, 13.2% took one, 17.9% took two and 4.9% took four (Ofqual, 2026).
A level results by year, 2019 to 2026
Top grades jumped in 2020 and 2021, when exams were cancelled, and have been just above 2019 levels since 2023.
UK A level outcomes, all subjects and ages. Source: JCQ press notices and results tables for each year.
Year
A*
A* or A
A* to E (pass)
How grades were set
2019
7.7%
25.4%
97.6%
Exams
2020
14.4%
38.6%
99.7%
Centre assessed grades
2021
19.1%
44.8%
99.5%
Teacher assessed grades
2022
14.6%
36.4%
98.4%
Exams, more lenient grading
2023
8.9%
27.2%
97.3%
Exams
2024
9.3%
27.8%
97.2%
Exams
2025
9.4%
28.3%
97.5%
Exams
2026
9.6%
28.5%
97.5%
Exams
In 2020, with exams cancelled, 38.6% of UK A level grades were A* or A, up from 25.5% in the 2019 figures printed in the same table (JCQ, 2020). Later JCQ notices give the 2019 baseline as 25.4%.
In 2021, teacher assessed grades pushed A* to 19.1% and A* or A to 44.8%, the highest on record, across 824,718 entries (JCQ, 2021).
Exams returned in 2022 with "more lenient grading", in line with an Ofqual objective that results land above 2019 but below 2021. A* rose 6.9 percentage points from 2019 to 14.6%, and A* or A rose 11 points to 36.4% (JCQ, 2022).
By 2023 the share of A* or A grades was back to 27.2%, 1.8 points above 2019, across 867,658 entries (JCQ, 2023).
In 2024, 246,637 A* or A grades were awarded, 27.8% of grades, 2.4 points above 2019 (JCQ, 2024).
Top grades rose by more than half when exams were cancelled, and have sat a few points above 2019 since 2023.
A level results by subject
Further maths, maths and art award the most A* grades. English language, media studies and business award the fewest.
The 14 most popular A levels, UK, summer 2026, all ages. Source: JCQ Table 1.
Subject
Entries
A*
A* or A
A* to C
Pass (A* to E)
Mathematics
115,380
17.7%
42.5%
78.2%
96.4%
Psychology
79,201
6.0%
20.1%
73.3%
97.1%
Biology
73,925
9.3%
27.8%
72.3%
96.2%
Chemistry
65,541
9.4%
32.3%
74.6%
96.0%
Economics
47,157
7.7%
30.2%
83.0%
98.2%
Business studies
46,977
4.2%
16.2%
77.0%
97.9%
History
46,960
5.8%
24.7%
84.1%
99.0%
Physics
45,800
11.5%
32.5%
73.2%
95.7%
Sociology
43,562
5.5%
19.0%
76.6%
98.0%
Art and design
42,620
16.5%
35.1%
88.9%
99.5%
English literature
36,196
9.3%
24.9%
83.1%
99.3%
Geography
34,128
5.9%
24.7%
80.8%
98.5%
Politics
24,824
8.1%
27.4%
82.2%
97.9%
Further mathematics
21,032
29.0%
58.9%
90.8%
98.3%
All subjects
906,425
9.6%
28.5%
78.4%
97.5%
Maths has been the most popular A level for years, and grew from 111,033 UK entries in 2025 to 115,380 in 2026 (JCQ Table 1). JCQ's 2024 notice marked the first time maths entries passed 100,000 (JCQ, 2024).
Economics had the largest rise in entries in 2026, up 10.5% to 47,157, making it the fifth most popular A level (JCQ, 2026).
In percentage terms, politics grew fastest of the subjects with more than 5,000 entries, up 11.9% to 24,824, followed by economics (10.5%) and law (10.4%, to 16,526) (JCQ Table 1).
"Other modern languages", a group taken mostly by native speakers, had the highest A* rate of any subject with 5,000 or more entries: 36.6% (JCQ Table 1).
English language had the lowest A* or A rate of any large subject, 12.3%, followed by media studies (14.0%) and English language and literature (14.8%), even though all three passed more than 99% of entries (JCQ Table 1).
The sciences are the hardest to pass. Physics (95.7%), computing (95.9%) and chemistry (96.0%) had the lowest pass rates of the larger subjects (JCQ Table 1).
A level results by sex
Boys get more of the very top grades. Girls get more grades in the middle.
10.2% of grades awarded to male students were A* in 2026, against 9.1% for female students (JCQ Table 1).
At A* or A the two were close (28.9% male, 28.0% female), but female students were ahead at A* to B (56.9% against 54.5%), A* to C (79.8% against 76.8%) and the pass rate (97.9% against 97.1%) (JCQ Table 1).
Female students made 53.9% of UK A level entries in 2026, 488,643 of 906,425 (our calculation from JCQ Table 1).
Of the five biggest A levels in England, economics (69.6% male) and maths (63.1% male) had the most male students in 2026, and psychology the most female (75.4%) (Ofqual, 2026).
The pattern was the same in 2024, when 9.5% of male grades and 9.1% of female grades were A*, while female students got slightly more A* or A grades (28.0% against 27.6%) (JCQ, 2024).
Results by UK nation, region and type of school
Independent and grammar school students get far more top grades than students at other state schools and colleges.
Northern Ireland had the highest share of A* or A grades in 2026, 30.7%, against 29.6% in Wales and 28.3% in England. Wales had the highest A* rate, 10.7% (JCQ Table 1).
Northern Ireland also had the highest share of A* to C grades, 86.9%, against 78.1% in England (JCQ Table 1).
In England, 48.6% of A level results at independent schools were A or above in 2026, against 43.4% at grammar schools, 25.4% across all state-funded schools and 12.8% at further education colleges (Ofqual, 2026).
Academies, the largest group with 318,030 results, had 23.5% A or above, and sixth form colleges 25.6% (Ofqual, 2026).
London had the highest share of A or above among England's regions, 32.7%, followed by the South East (31.5%). The North East and East Midlands were lowest at 23.1% each (Ofqual, 2026).
How many students get straight A* grades?
About 1 in 45 students taking three A levels gets an A* in all of them.
In England in 2026, 4,195 of 193,275 18-year-olds taking three A levels got three A* grades, 2.2% (Ofqual, 2026).
For 18-year-olds taking four A levels, 12.7% got A* in every subject (1,900 of 14,975), and for those taking five or more, 15.8% (Ofqual, 2026).
Among 18-year-olds taking three A levels, 2.3% of male and 2.1% of female students got straight A* grades (Ofqual, 2026).
Common misreadings of A level statistics
"28.5% of students got an A." The headline percentages count grades, not students. A student with A*, B and C contributes one grade to each band. Ofqual's student-level figures (such as the 2.2% with three A* grades) are the ones to use for "how many students".
"A level results fell sharply in 2023." They fell from 2022, when grading was deliberately more lenient to sit between 2019 and 2021 outcomes. Compared with the last normal year, 2019, results in 2023 were higher at every top grade.
"An A* needs 90%." There is no fixed percentage. Boundaries are set after marking for each paper and each board. Our A level grades guide explains how. And JCQ (UK) and Ofqual (England only) figures differ slightly because they cover different areas: 28.5% A* or A for the UK against 28.3% for England in 2026.
Methodology
We used only official sources: JCQ's press notices and results tables, which cover A levels from AQA, OCR, CCEA, Pearson and WJEC/Eduqas across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and Ofqual's statistical release for England. 2026 figures are from results published on 13 August 2026; JCQ describes its tables as provisional. Single-grade shares in the distribution table are differences between JCQ's cumulative percentages, and the share of female entries is our calculation from JCQ counts. Every figure was checked against the source documents in October 2026. Results for university degrees are on our UK degree classification statistics page.
You are welcome to use these statistics in your own writing. Please credit StudyCards AI with a link to this page.
APA
Groves, C. (2026). A Level Results Statistics: Grades by Subject. StudyCards AI. https://studycardsai.com/blog/a-level-results-statistics
HTML link
<a href="https://studycardsai.com/blog/a-level-results-statistics">A Level Results Statistics: Grades by Subject</a>
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage of A level grades are A*?
9.6% of UK A level grades were A* in summer 2026, up from 9.4% in 2025 and 7.7% in 2019, according to JCQ. The highest share on record was 19.1% in 2021, when grades were set by teachers instead of exams. Further maths had the highest A* rate of the large subjects, 29.0%.
What percentage of students get an A or A* at A level?
28.5% of UK A level grades awarded in 2026 were A* or A (JCQ). This counts grades, not students, since most students take three subjects. It was 28.3% in 2025, 25.4% in 2019 and a peak of 44.8% in 2021. In England the figure was 28.3% (Ofqual).
What is the A level pass rate?
97.5% of UK A level grades in 2026 were A* to E, the pass grades, the same as in 2025 (JCQ). The pass rate was 97.6% in 2019. Physics had the lowest pass rate of the large subjects at 95.7%, and drama the highest at 99.8%.
What is the most common A level grade?
B. In 2026, 27.3% of UK A level grades were a B, more than any other grade, and 55.8% of grades were B or higher, which makes B the median grade too. 22.6% were a C, 18.9% an A and 9.6% an A* (our calculation from JCQ cumulative percentages).
How many students get all A* grades?
Very few. In England in 2026, 4,195 of the 193,275 18-year-olds taking three A levels got A* in all three, 2.2%, according to Ofqual. Among 18-year-olds taking four A levels the rate was 12.7%, because those students are a more selective group.