GCSE outcomes in England


These interactive graphs and tables show GCSE full course outcomes across all subjects for all students for the years 2008 to 2024 and for 16 year olds for the years 2013 to 2024.

Clicking on an individual grade or gender in the legend will make the line in the chart disappear or appear. For more explanation of these graphs and tables, click on the Questions and Answers tab.












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For any feedback on these graphs or tables, please contact [email protected].

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If you need an accessible version of this information to meet specific accessibility requirements, please email [email protected] with details of your request.

The four graphs show GCSE outcomes and the number of students taking GCSEs in England in the summer exam series from 2008 to 2024. Details of the data shown in each graph are as follows:

  • Graph 1 (All tab): the percentage of results achieving each grade in GCSE in the subject selected
  • Graph 2 (Female tab): data used in graph 1 for female students
  • Graph 3 (Male tab): data used in graph 1 for male students
  • Graph 4 (Results tab): the number of results issued for students taking GCSEs in the subject selected, overall and split by gender.

GCSEs in England have been reformed, please see the timetable of reforms. Using the qualification status buttons, it is possible to view GCSE outcomes for pre-reform (referred to as "legacy") qualifications, reformed qualifications, and legacy and reformed qualifications together. Legacy qualifications are graded from A* to G whereas reformed qualifications are graded from 9 to 1. The legacy and reformed view shows outcomes for the three pairs of grades which align on the two scales: A/7, C/4 and G/1.

Grading is continuing as normal in summer 2024 following the return to pre-pandemic standards in summer 2023. Further information is available in the Ofqual guide for schools and colleges, the Ofqual student guide 2024 and our news story on summer 2024 grading.

In 2020 and 2021, when GCSE, AS and A level exams did not go ahead due to the pandemic, national results were higher than prior to the pandemic. Overall results were also higher than pre-pandemic in 2022, when grading was at a midway point between summer 2019 and summer 2021. The return to pre-pandemic grading in summer 2023 meant that national results were similar to pre-pandemic and were lower than in summer 2022. Further information is available on the Ofqual website.

All GCSE subjects taken in England in the latest summer series are included in the "All subjects" grouping in the subject drop-down. The majority of GCSE subjects with results issued in England in 2024 are available to select individually in the subject drop-down. For historical information on subjects not included in the drop down please visit the JCQ results tables.

All of the subjects are grouped using the subject groupings established by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ). Most groupings contain a single subject but some groupings contain multiple subjects. For example, "classical subjects" includes Biblical Hebrew, ancient history, classical civilisation, classical Greek and Latin. Social science subjects includes law, psychology and sociology. Performing/expressive arts contained performing arts, expressive arts and dance until 2017; from 2018 this category only includes dance. Some subjects were not reformed and the reasons for this are explained in this article on timings for the withdrawal of legacy GCSEs, AS and A levels. These subjects are not displayed due to them not having results in the latest exam series. If you would like to access this historical data please see the Joint Council for Qualifications examination results.

In this publication we only present data for male and female students. We do not report outcomes for those who did not report their gender or who did not identify as male or female. This is because the number of individuals is too small and there would be a risk that individuals could be identified. Ofqual’s confidentiality and rounding policy provides further information on our data protection guidelines.

Data for the years 2008 to 2024 include all students in England taking GCSEs. Data for 16-year-old students in England (the age students are typically when taking GCSEs) is available by selecting "Aged 16" from the age group options. In these graphs, the breakdown by age is only available for 2013 onwards as this was the first year the breakdown was published in this data.

Non-cumulative percentages for each grade show the actual percentage of students achieving a particular grade (eg achieving a grade 4). Sometimes this is referred to as percentage of students "in grade". In contrast, cumulative percentages are the percentage of students achieving that grade and all the grades above it (eg grade 4 and above - grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9).

For cumulative percentages, it is possible to view the data with the y-axis reversed as well (going from 100 to 0 instead of 0 to 100) by selecting reversed from the y-axis layout options.

For subjects which have been reformed, legacy view will show the outcomes of legacy qualifications up until the last summer they were awarded and reformed view will show the outcomes of reformed qualifications from the first summer they were awarded. Additionally, some subjects have been available for only a part of the time period displayed:

  • citizenship studies and engineering were first awarded in summer 2011
  • computing was first awarded in summer 2013
  • food preparation and nutrition was first awarded in summer 2018.

When you hover over a point on the graph, a pop-up box will appear. For the first three tabs, the pop-up box in the graph provides information on the year, the grade and the percentage of results achieving that grade (or that grade and above if "cumulative percentages" are selected) in the selected subject. For the fourth tab, the pop-up box in the graph provides information on the year, the gender of students and the number of students taking a GCSE in the selected subject.

Some line labels appear to be missing where the data points on the graph overlap. You can see which grade or gender the line relates to by hovering over the line and the pop-up box will then appear which includes this information. The legend also identifies each line on the graph and clicking on an individual grade or gender in the legend will make the associated line in the graph disappear or appear.

In 2014 to 2016, a large number of students were entered to level1/level 2 certificates in English language instead of GCSEs. Schools and colleges continued to enter students to these GCSE alternatives until summer 2017 when they no longer counted in performance tables.

The new 9 to 1 grade scale and old A* to G scale link at 7 and A; 4 and C; and 1 and G. See the Grading new GCSEs postcard for more information. In the new grading scale, the distribution of students has been split into more grades above grade 4 than above grade C on the legacy grading scale. That means that the percentage of students "in grade", eg achieving a grade 7, is typically smaller than those having previously were "in grade" for a grade A (though note, the cumulative proportion at grade 7 ie achieving 7 and above is typically similar to the proportion achieving grade A and above)

Ofqual receives this data from the JCQ, near to results day. This data is supplied by awarding organisations to the JCQ who usually publish the data on results day. The data does not reflect any changes to grades from post-results reviews. This means that it is possible that the figures presented here may not be the same as those presented in the Department for Educations statistical first release on GCSE results.

We are publishing this data in the interests of openness and transparency and so that students, schools, policy makers and other stakeholders can access this data in an interactive manner and explore the grade distributions in GCSE subjects.

To ensure confidentiality of the data, all figures for the number of grades have been rounded to the nearest 5. Percentages that refer to fewer than 5 results have been suppressed (seen as "Not shown") in the data tables and charts. This is to ensure the identity of any individuals or organisations, or any private information is not revealed from our interactive visualisation.

The total number of results issued has been calculated using unrounded figures. As a result, the sum of rounded figures may slightly differ from the total reported.

For any feedback on these graphs or tables, please contact [email protected].

Return to the Ofqual Analytics home page.

If you need an accessible version of this information to meet specific accessibility requirements, please email [email protected] with details of your request.