Here are the main numbers and trends in this year’s GCSE results:
– The proportion of entries receiving the top grades has risen from last year and remains higher than before the Covid-19 pandemic.
A total of 21.9% of entries were awarded grade 7/A or above, up slightly from 21.8% in 2024 and higher than 20.8% in 2019.
– Some 67.4% of entries received a grade 4/C or above.
This is down from 67.6% last year but higher than 67.3% in 2019.
– The overall rate for grades 1/G or above is 97.9%, unchanged from 2024 and below 98.3% in 2019.
This is the lowest 1/G figure for two decades, since 97.8% in 2005.
– The longstanding lead enjoyed by girls over boys for the top grades has narrowed again.
The proportion of total female entries awarded grade 7/A or above was 24.5%, 5.1 percentage points higher than total male entries (19.4%).
This is the narrowest lead enjoyed by girls since at least the year 2000, which is the earliest available archive data.
Last year, girls led boys by 5.7 percentage points (24.7% girls, 19.0% boys).
– The gap at grade 4/C has also narrowed.
Some 70.5% of all female entries were awarded 4/C or higher, compared with 64.3% for boys, a lead of 6.2 points.
This is the narrowest lead for girls at 4/C since at least 2000.
Last year the figures were 71.0% for girls and 64.2% for boys, a lead of 6.8 points.
– Across the regions of England, London saw the highest proportion of entries awarded grades of 7/A or higher at 28.4%, down from 28.5% in 2024, while north-east England had the lowest (17.8%, unchanged on last year).
The gap between these two regions now stands at 10.6 percentage points, down slightly from 10.7 points in 2024.
– Some 31.6% of entries in Northern Ireland received 7/A or higher, above the equivalent figure for England (21.8%) and Wales (19.5%).
– The subject with the most entries this year was the science double award, as has been the case since its introduction in 2018, with a total of 989,264 entries, up 0.9% on 2024.
Because this is a double award, each entry for the subject is awarded two grades.
– Maths remains the subject with the second largest number of entries, with 893,198 this year, up 1.7% on last year.
English language ranks third, with 866,023 entries, a rise of 2.4%.
– Among subjects with more than 100,000 entries, Spanish had the largest percentage increase in entries this year, up 2.6% from 133,395 in 2024 to 136,871 in 2025, overtaking French for the first time.
– Among subjects with fewer than 100,000 entries, statistics jumped by 9.5%, from 31,844 entries in 2024 to 34,879.
– Overall, there were 6,160,034 GCSE entries, down by 0.4% on last year’s figure of 6,186,879.
