GCSE results 2026: English and maths pass rates down for fifth straight year

This year’s GCSE results have shown a reduction in the proportion of students passing English and maths in England, while the overall pass rate across all subjects is also down.

The pass rate (grade 4 or above) in English language was 59.5 per cent, down from 59.7 per cent last year and 61.6 per cent in 2024.

In maths, the pass rate fell to 57.2 per cent from 58.2 per cent in 2025.

After peaking during Covid in 2021, both English language and maths have seen decreases in the proportion of passes at grade 4 or higher every year since.

GCSE exams were cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic; results were awarded by teachers based on a range of evidence, including classwork, coursework and mock exams, leading to higher grades.

Ofqual enacted a two-step process to return to pre-pandemic grading standards in 2022 and 2023.

The proportion of students receiving grades 4 or better in English and maths remains below pre-pandemic levels.

This year’s results also reveal that the regional divide in attainment at grade 4 continued to grow, while the gender gap narrowed.

Last week’s A-level results showed a rise in overall top grades, while the attainment gaps between London and other regions reached new highs.

Key trends from GCSE results 2026

Tes looks below at some of the key takeaways from this year’s GCSE results.

Some 67 per cent of entries achieved a grade 4 or higher across all subjects this year, down marginally from 67.1 per cent in 2025.

Among 16-year-olds, the share rose to 70.7 per cent, compared with 70.5 per cent this time last year.

The proportion of all students receiving the top grades (7 and above) remained the same this year at 21.8 per cent.

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Meanwhile, 23.1 per cent of 16-year-olds received top grades, compared with 23 per cent last year.

In 2025, 5.1 per cent of all students achieved the top grade 9, falling to 5 per cent in 2026.

The share of students achieving a grade 4 or better in English language decreased from 59.7 per cent to 59.5 per cent this year.

Among students aged 17 or older (typically students retaking GCSEs after poor results first time around), 19.8 per cent achieved a grade 4 or better in English language; this was down from 20.9 per cent in both the previous two years.

• More on 2026 GCSE results:
• Results by subject
• Results by region
• State and private school results
• Results by gender

Some 71.4 per cent of 16-year-old students achieved a grade 4 or higher in English language this year, compared with 70.5 per cent in 2025.

In maths, the share of all students receiving a grade 4 or above was 57.2 per cent, down one percentage point on 2025.

Meanwhile, the proportion of maths students aged 17 and older in receipt of grade 4 or above fell substantially from 17.1 per cent in 2025 to 15.3 per cent this year.

There was a marginal fall for 16-year-olds receiving grade 4 or above in maths, from 71.9 per cent last year to 71.8 per cent.

GCSE entries from students aged 17 or older in England increased from 433,697 to 453,242.

Overall, GCSE entries are down by 1 per cent this summer, from 5,777,020 in 2025 to 5,719,431 this year.

Fewer students entered both English language (819,199) and maths (851,268) this year. In 2025, the figures were 825,940 and 856,430, respectively.

Regional divide widens

Similar to last week’s A-level results, today’s GCSEs show that the regional gap in the share of students securing a grade 4 or better widened slightly this year.

The gap between the regions with the highest and lowest proportion of students achieving this was 9.3 percentage points, when comparing London (71.7 per cent of entries graded 4 or higher) and the West Midlands (62.4 per cent).

Last year the widest gap at grade 4 was 8.6 percentage points between London (71.5 per cent) and the West Midlands (62.9 per cent).

The regional divide in attaining top grades has also widened this year to 10.9 percentage points; the gap was 10.4 percentage points in 2025.

The best-performing region was once again London (28.6 per cent graded 7 or better) while the North East had the smallest share of top grades awarded (17.7 per cent).

Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said it was “deeply concerning” to see such “stubborn” regional inequalities.

He warned: “Children experiencing persistent long-term disadvantage have fallen further behind their peers since the pandemic, and many of those children are concentrated in communities across the North.

“Unless that is addressed directly, these regional gaps will keep reproducing themselves year after year.”

State and private school top grades

Meanwhile, the gap between state and private schools achieving the top grades has slightly reduced, from 27.4 percentage points in 2025 to 26.5 percentage points this year.

Some 20.6 per cent of entries achieved a grade 7 or above across all state-funded schools, while in private schools the share was 47.1 per cent.

Data for specific types of state school show that 19.7 per cent of entries from academies received the top grades (compared with 19.5 per cent last year) and at secondary comprehensives 20.1 per cent were graded 7 or better (19.9 per cent in 2025).

A larger share of the top grades were awarded at free schools (21.7 per cent) compared with last year (20.9 per cent).

Across all state schools, the proportion of entries graded 4 or better was 66.1 per cent compared with 88.4 per cent in private schools, leaving a gap of 22.3 percentage points.

Last year the gap between state schools and private schools was 23.1 percentage points.

Girls remain ahead

After the gender gap narrowed to its lowest point since 2000 last year, this year’s results show it has once again reduced.

This year, girls were more likely to achieve a grade 4 across all subjects (69.9 per cent) compared with boys (64.2 per cent).

Girls’ performance at grade 4 level dropped by 0.3 percentage points this year (it was 70.2 per cent in 2025), while there was a marginal rise in performance from boys by 0.1 percentage points (64.1 per cent in 2025).

Some 19.5 per cent of entries from boys were awarded top grades (grade 7 or better) compared with 19.3 per cent last summer. Among girls, the figure was 24.1 per cent, down from 24.2 per cent.

The proportion of boys achieving the highest grade 9 remained at 4.4 per cent this summer, while girls saw a slight reduction from 5.8 per cent in each of the past two years to 5.7 per cent in 2026.

Student resit struggles ‘very concerning’

The struggles of many students to pass English and maths resits at 17 were described as “very concerning” by Carl Cullinane, director of research and policy at the Sutton Trust social mobility charity.

“Any new stepping-stone qualifications need to help build young people’s confidence and competence” in maths and English, he said, since these subjects are “crucial to unlocking good education, training and work opportunities”.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, warned that “force-feeding [students] a relentless diet of GCSE English and maths in post-16 education is simply not working”.

He argued that it is “very likely to be a factor in the large number of young people who end up not in employment, education or training”.

Alongside GCSE results, the National Reference Test was also published today, revealing a “long-term trend of slightly improved attainment in GCSE maths, but not in English language”.

Following initial pilots in Oldham and Coventry, GCSE students across England could get their results through the government’s Education Record app for the first time today.

The app stores students’ results and enables them to access their grades when applying for further education or jobs, instead of relying on paper documents from schools.