A Level results 2026: 2.1% rise in A* grades

The proportion of A* grades achieved by A Level students in England has risen by 2.1 per cent in a year, with regional and gender gaps widening.

This year 9.6 per cent of grades were A*, up from 9.4 per cent in 2025, data published by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) shows.

Overall, the proportion of top grades also rose. This year 28.3 per cent of grades were an A or A*, up from 28.2 per cent last year.

These figures have been climbing since 2023, when grading was adjusted to bring results nearer to pre-pandemic norms.

Sir Ian Bauckham, the chief regulator at Ofqual, said the qualifications “open doors” for students because they were so widely recognised and trusted.

“A Levels are trusted because they are awarded to rigorous and consistent national standards. Universities, employers, and students can have confidence that an A Level grade represents what students know and can do.”

Read our handy round up of the key trends.

Gaps grow

A number of gaps have widened. The gender gap in top grades now favours boys, who outperformed girls last year for the first time since the pandemic.

However, girls make up 54 per cent of A Level entries, so the overall number of top grades issued to girls is still higher.

The gap between the best and worst-performing regions has also widened to 9.6 percentage points.

London continues to have the best results, with 32.7 per cent of grades at an A or above, up 0.6 percentage points.

The East Midlands now shares the bottom spot with the north east, following a 0.7 percentage point drop in top grades to 23.1 per cent. There was also a slight fall in top grades in the east of England and north west, bucking the national trend.

‘Significant disparities’

Pepe Di’Iasio, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, noted that while the year-on-year results were largely consistent, “this also means that very significant disparities continue to exist between the English regions in terms of top grades.

“These results are clearly affected by relative levels of socioeconomic disadvantage and reflect the structural inequalities that exist in our nation.

“Every year we say that we cannot go on like this and that as a society we must do more to support communities that often feel abandoned and neglected. When will we actually do that?”

He said the results were a “culmination of a great deal of hard work, and everybody involved deserves enormous credit for their commitment.

“It is important to remember that today is not only about celebrating A Levels, but that many thousands of young people take a range of equivalent qualifications in technical and vocational subjects that are vital both to their progression and to providing the skills base of the nation.”

Will we see an ‘Odyssey effect’?

As revealed earlier this year, there have been big rises in the number of entries to politics, law, economics and further maths. Entries dropped in English literature, drama and classical subjects.

Myles McGinley, the managing director of exam board Cambridge OCR, noted that economics was “surging in popularity”.

“The students getting their A Level results today were born around 2008: they are children of the financial crisis and many have been gripped by the more recent economic events that shape their world.”

Classics entries were down “but we expect that to change” following the release of Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation of Homer’s epic The Odyssey.

“We’re already hearing from teachers and students about ‘The Odyssey effect’. This year has shown the classics can be interesting to everyone.”

Drop in first-choice uni place success

Data from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) shows that as of this morning, 78.3 per cent of England’s 18-year-olds have got a place at their first-choice university, down slightly from 81.5 per cent last year.

The proportion getting a place at one of their back-up choices rose from 11.6 to 13.6 per cent.

UCAS chief executive Jo Saxton, a former Ofqual chief regulator, said that today’s school leavers “were just starting secondary school when the pandemic interrupted their education.

“Given the significant disruption they faced at such a formative stage of their learning, it is wonderful to see so many young people getting a place at university or college. I’m delighted to see them backing themselves and choosing to invest in their education.”

This story has been updated. It previously incorrectly reported that the proportion of A* grades had risen by 3.2 per cent.