The 2026 headline figures
22% of GCSE entries were awarded grade 7 or above this summer, and 67.3% reached grade 4 or above, the standard pass. Both are within half a point of 2025.
32.7% of entries did not reach grade 4. A grade 4 is a standard pass and a grade 7 is roughly the old A. A subject's pass rate can move without its top-grade rate moving with it.
2019 is the usual comparison: the last summer before grades were awarded without exams. Top grades are 1.1 points above it, 20.9% then against 22% now. The pass rate is back where it was, 67.3% then and 67.3% now.
Maths, the largest entry of any subject, moved in opposite directions at the two key grades: grade 7 and above up 0.4 of a point to 17%, grade 4 and above down a full point to 57.3%. Girls were ahead at grade 7 or above in 30 of the 36 subjects where JCQ publishes a male and female split. Entries were up 0.6% at 6,199,256, with Statistics the fastest riser outside the ten largest subjects at 11.2%.
The national picture since 2014
67.3% of entries reached grade 4 or above in 2026 (−0.1pp on the year before) and 22% reached grade 7 or above. The 2020–21 bump is the two years grades were awarded without exams.
Where a grade 7 is hardest
Share of entries at grade 7 or above in 2026, for every subject in JCQ's tables. JCQ does not publish the smallest subjects at all, so the floor here is theirs rather than ours.
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The gender gap, subject by subject
The percentage-point gap at grade 7 or above between male and female entries in 2026, every subject JCQ splits by sex. Girls lead at grade 7 in 30 of 36 subjects listed; nationally the rates are 24.4% for female entries and 19.6% for male.
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Biggest moves on 2025
Change in each subject's grade-7-or-above rate against the year before, subjects with every subject JCQ publishes in both years.
Risers
The most-entered subjects
Entries for the biggest GCSEs in 2026, with each one's movement on the year before.
About the data
Source: JCQ joint results tables, © JCQCIC. Provisional June-series results for the UK (England, Wales and Northern Ireland), all ages, as published each results day. England grades GCSEs 9 to 1, Wales and Northern Ireland still use letters, so the comparable metrics are JCQ's key grades: 7/A, 4/C and 1/G. Subjects with under 5,000 entries are not listed, and 2021 to 2023 carry no male–female split in the machine-readable tables. Our charts and computed statistics are free to reuse with credit to Tutorperch and JCQ.