London pulls further ahead as A-level regional divide for top grades hits record

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The gap between the proportion of A-level entries in London getting the top grades and the equivalent figure in both north-east England and the East Midlands has reached a new record size.

32.7% of entries in the capital were awarded A or A* this year, up from 32.1% in 2025 and the highest for any region in England, the exam results show.

The north-east and the East Midlands had the joint lowest rate, at 23.1%.

The gap between London and each of these two regions now stands at 9.6 percentage points, the largest since the present system of grading began in 2010, according to Press Association analysis.

In north-east England, the gap has widened from 9.2 points in 2025, though the proportion of entries getting A or A* rose slightly this year, from 22.9% to 23.1%.

By contrast, the East Midlands saw a drop in entries awarded the top grades, from 23.8% to 23.1%, the biggest fall of any region. This pushed the gap with London up from 8.3 points in 2025 to 9.6 points this year.

At a national level, 10.7% of A-level entries this year in Wales received A*, higher than the equivalent figure for England (9.6%) and Northern Ireland (8.8%).

For entries awarded A or above, Northern Ireland was ahead at 30.7%, above Wales (29.6%) and England (28.3%).

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  Pictured: students celebrate A-level result success

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  Students across England, Wales and Northern Ireland await A-level results

Here are some more photos from this morning, as students continue to receive their A-level results …

Sally Weale

As London continued to stretch its lead ahead of the rest of the country, one of the capital’s highest-scoring schools celebrated a stellar set of A-level results which will enable one in 10 students to realise their dream and go on to study medicine at university.

At Michaela Community School in Brent, students achieved an average of AAA across all subjects, while one in three exams were graded A* and 90% were B or above.

Head teacher Katharine Birbalsingh, star of a TV documentary called Britain’s Strictest Headteacher, celebrated her pupils’ success with a string of touching result reveal clips on X.

“We are delighted with these fantastic results,” she said, adding, “11% of students are going to study medicine, 85% will be going off to Russell Group Universities.”

Michael Goodier

Shakespeare is out, while Isaac Newton is in, the figures show. This year’s results have continued the squeezing of arts and humanities subjects – which made up just over a quarter of exam entries.

Ten years ago, they made up 40% of A-level exams. As we’ve written earlier, the squeeze is mainly driven by maths, other STEM subjects, and increasingly social science subjects like economics.

For English, the writing may not quite yet be on the wall, but its not looking great.

Michael Goodier

Students at private schools in England saw their top grades remain relatively flat this year – with 48.6% receiving an A* or A grade, up just 0.5 percentage points on last year.

Meanwhile students at sixth form colleges saw grades rise 0.5 points, academies saw grades rise 0.4 points, and local authority controlled comprehensives saw a 0.3 point rise. Meanwhile grammar school saw a slight fall in A and A* grades.

During the pandemic – when grades were teacher assessed – private schools saw a larger jump in top grades compared to other centres. Since then the gap between private and state funded schools has narrowed, and in recent years has remained steady.

Sally Weale

Results for students taking vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs) have taken a more prominent role during results day this year, after prime minister Andy Burnham declared his ambition to build parity between academic and vocational paths.

More than 300,000 VTQ results across 420 qualifications were awarded, according to the Joint Council for Qualifications, with business, administration and law the most popular subject areas.

The number of students receiving results for T-levels – which are two-year technical education courses available in England and equivalent in size to three A-levels – jumped 65% on last year as the qualification continues to establish itself. Almost 20,000 students received results, up from 12,000 last year, with a pass rate of over 90%.

The prime minister congratulated students, saying: “It’s brilliant to see more students succeeding in T-levels, more taking maths and STEM subjects, and more young people progressing to the next stage of their education or training.

“The talent is there in every town and city in this country. Our task is to match that talent with opportunity, whether that’s through university, an apprenticeship or a technical pathway that leads to a great career. That’s how we’ll build a stronger Britain, restore hope and ensure every young person can look to the future with confidence.”

Dani Payne, head of education and social mobility at the Social Market Foundation thinktank, said today’s results showed the scale of the challenge facing the government. “T-level growth offers real encouragement for Andy Burnham’s push to put technical education on a more equal footing with academic routes.

“The number of students receiving a T-level technical qualification result has risen by around two-thirds in just one year, while outcomes remain strong, suggesting that expanding these qualifications does not have to come at the expense of standards.”

But higher education remains by far the more established and visible route for young people, she said. “More than 320,000 students received A-level results today, compared with fewer than 20,000 receiving T level results, while a record 262,820 UK 18-year-olds have already been placed at university.

“If [Burnham] wants technical education to command genuine parity of esteem, creating new pathways will only be the beginning. It will require sustained investment in further education, to ensure these new pathways lead somewhere meaningful: into good jobs, training and further study.”

Richard Adams

While the improvement in national A-level results in England is taking the headlines, social mobility experts say they are alarmed by the widening gap in performance between students in London and the south of England and their peers in other parts of the country.

Nick Harrison, head of the Sutton Trust that campaigns on improving social mobility through education, said the results “reveal an increasingly stark regional divide, as London continues to pull further ahead of the rest of England”.

Harrison said:

A young person’s chances shouldn’t depend so heavily on where they go to school, and these results underline the need for concerted action to tackle the attainment gap and regional differences across England.

Myles McGinley, managing director of the Cambridge OCR exam board, noted that even within London there were stark inequality geps between the capital’s boroughs:

London’s success at a regional level is masking some severe inequalities within the capital itself. It’s a reminder that we can improve opportunities throughout the country, even in the regions that seem to be the most successful.

The proportion of top grades can more than double just by crossing the river. Almost half of every A-level result in Richmond-upon-Thames was an A or A*. In neighbouring Hounslow that figure is closer to one in five.

Prime minister Andy Burnham offered his congratulations to A-level students this morning.

He said:

I want to congratulate everyone receiving their results today. I know there will have been a mix of excitement, nerves and relief this morning, but you should all be proud of the hard work that got you here.

It’s brilliant to see more students succeeding in T-levels, more taking maths and Stem subjects, and more young people progressing to the next stage of their education or training.

The talent is there in every town and city in this country. Our task is to match that talent with opportunity, whether that’s through university, an apprenticeship or a technical pathway that leads to a great career. That’s how we’ll build a stronger Britain, restore hope and ensure every young person can look to the future with confidence.

Michael Goodier

This year’s top 10 most chosen subjects is once again the same as last year– but there has been some movement.

Once again, maths has dominated - with more than 214,000 students taking the subject (and that’s not including 46,462 further maths entries!)

Economics has shot up the rankings to become the fifth most popular subject, overtaking sociology, physics and business. History was also a big winner, rising three places to become the 6th most popular subject.

Sociology fell four places – but the drop was more than made up by rises in students taking other social sciences. Politics, law and psychology – like economics – all saw significant rises in entries.

Results day is always governed by strict embargo, but some anxious students got their news early after the University of Surrey accidentally sent out text messages to successful applicants last night.

Instead of sending the information at 8.10am Thursday morning, text messages went out to 2,400 successful applicants (about half the total) at 8.10pm last night when the nation was enjoying the eclipse.

A spokesperson for the University of Surrey said:

A scheduled results day text message was sent at the wrong time to some University of Surrey offer holders.

The information and recipients were correct, but the message was sent at 8.10pm on Wednesday rather than 8.10am on Thursday.

We are extremely sorry for this error. We self-reported to Ucas and worked closely with their team through the evening.

We immediately put in place a dedicated line for people who received the messages in error and were available to provide support through the night.

Sally Weale

Among the most striking trends in A-levels this year is the surge in popularity of economics at A-level which jumped to the fifth most popular course, up from 10th position last year, with more than 47,000 entries.

Myles McGinley, managing director of the Cambridge OCR exam board, speaking at a briefing by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), said: “The students getting their A-level results today were born around 2008.

“So they’re the children of the financial crisis [and they] will have experienced the implications and impacts of that through Covid and beyond, and those forces that really shape the world.

So I think it feels natural that they should be interested in that. And of course we know that economics provides excellent career options.”

Reporting from The Guardian contributed to this story.