More maths, more regional disparity: England’s A-level results in five charts

Another year, another cohort of A-level students in England experiencing the unique, nerve-racking experience of results day. Yes, the results are in. And for many more students than expected, the news is good.

Here is what we have learned in the course of this year’s A-levels … and be grateful that there will be no exam on it at the end.

Maths entries reached record levels

A-level maths has long been the most popular subject for pupils in England. But this year the subject attracted more pupils than ever, with more than 100,000 sitting the exam – the first time any subject has broken the 100k barrier.

What’s more, 17,000 pupils took further maths, the subject with the biggest year-on-year growth in student numbers, up 20% on 2023.

There were also significant increases in physics, other sciences and computing, all of which attracted between 11% and 13% more pupils.

There were no new entries to the top 10, although there was some movement within it. History jumped to fifth place, supplanting sociology, which saw its numbers drop by 6.5% compared with 2023, the largest percentage fall in the year. Physics is now in ninth place, pushing economics into 10th.

Stem subjects and social sciences made further gains

The Stem subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) are the most popular subject grouping among A-level pupils.

However, the proportion choosing social sciences – a subject group that includes economics, geography, law, sociology and psychology – has steadily increased over the past decade (the drop in sociology students this year was from a relatively large base).

Overall, 37.1% of exams taken in 2024 were Stem-related. That is more than 300,000 exams, the highest such combined figure since at least 2010. The social sciences are creeping up on them: 32.5% of all papers taken this year were related to a subject in this group.

This steady increase in social sciences has been mirrored by a decline in humanities subjects, a grouping that includes languages, history and religious and classical studies. There was some good news for language lovers: the number sitting French was up 8.2% on last year while “other languages” rose by 10%. But humanities accounted for just 17.5% of the exams taken this year.

The arts – music, drama, and design and technology, among others – also suffered, registering their lowest level since at least 2011.

Jack Gamble, the director of the Campaign for the Arts, warned that “urgent action is necessary to halt the decline”, adding: “The arts have a proven role in contributing to better outcomes for children and young people, but they have been sidelined and underfunded in recent years.”

Mind the (independent schools) gap

One of the talking points in England during the teacher-assessed grading of the Covid crisis was the disproportionate bump in grades awarded to private-school pupils compared with their state-school counterparts.

In 2020 and 2021, when exam-based grades were supplanted with teacher assessments, and 2022, when there was a return to exams but with more generous marking, there was a yawning gap between the best-performing schools (independents) and the worst-performing (further education colleges).

At its greatest, in 2021, that gap stood at a whopping 38.7 percentage points, although that shrank somewhat last year.

Independent schools – a grouping that includes a small number of city technology colleges – are still the best-performing. Close to half of their exam entries resulted in an A* or A this year, a 4.6-percentage-point increase compared with 2019.

Grammar schools achieved the second-highest marks, with 41% of grades being an A* or A, as did more than a third of free schools and 26.5% of academies.

All regions did better than in 2023, but the geographical divide persists

Every region has achieved a higher proportion of A* and A grades compared with 2023 and with 2019, the last pre-pandemic year.

London registered the highest rise in those top grades, up by 4.4 percentage points to 31.3% of all grades year-on-year. The West Midlands, previously among the worst-performing regions in terms of top grades, recorded the second-biggest increase in A* and As among the regions this year: 24.8% of all entries resulted in an A grade or above, up 2.8 percentage points.

However, the gap between the best-performing region (London) and the worst-performing (the East Midlands) is not only stubbornly high, but at 8.8 percentage points, the highest of any year since at least 2019.

‘An able cohort’

A summary of the day could, then, read as follows: the 2024 A-levels cohort are really very smart.

One in every 11 grades achieved by students in England this year were of the A* variety. And while that percentage is lower than the heady gradings of Covid times, it is significantly higher than last year and pre-2020 results years.

There had been some expectation that we could see a continuation of the phased grade deflation of previous years, but the 2024 results have bucked the 2022-23 trend, with more students achieving a C grade or above, and fewer E grades.

Speaking at a press conference before the results were published, the chief regulator of Ofqual, Ian Bauckham, said: “There is no grade inflation this year … any change is largely due to the ability of the cohort.”

Confirmation, then, that this year’s cohort are, indeed, clever. Class dismissed.

• Additional contribution by Chris Watson and Tural Ahmedzade