By contrast, north-east England had the lowest regional percentage this year at 22.9%, down from 23.9% in 2024.<\/p>\n
The gap between these two regions now stands at 9.2 percentage points, up from 7.4 points last year and the largest since the present system of grading began in 2010, according to analysis by the PA news agency.<\/p>\n
North-east England is one of just two regions to see a year-on-year drop in entries receiving top grades, the other being West Midlands (down from 24.8% to 24.2%).<\/p>\n
It is also the only region where the proportion of entries awarded A or A* this year, 22.9%, is lower than the equivalent figure in the pre-pandemic year of 2019 (23.0%).<\/p>\n
For entries receiving the top grade of A*, London again had the highest proportion (11.6%, up from 11.3%) and north-east England the lowest (6.8%, down from 7.8%).<\/p>\n
The gap here of 4.8 percentage points is wider than in 2024 (3.5 points) but not as large as during the pandemic, when it reached 6.8 points in 2021.<\/p>\n
North-east England and the West Midlands are the only regions to see a year-on-year fall in entries receiving A*.<\/p>\n
By contrast, all regions reported a year-on-year increase in the proportion of entries awarded a grade C or higher, with London and south-east England almost tied on the highest percentage (79.54% and 79.45% respectively) and the East Midlands having the lowest (73.6%).<\/p>\n
At a national level, 30.4% of entries in Northern Ireland received A or A*, higher than the equivalent figure for Wales (29.5%) and England (28.2%).<\/p>\n
For entries awarded C or above, Northern Ireland was ahead at 85.8%, above England (77.7%) and Wales (77.2%).<\/p>\n
Here are the percentages of A-level entries awarded the top grade of A* by nation and region in 2025, with the equivalent figures for both 2024 and the pre-pandemic year of 2019:<\/p>\n
\u2013 North-east England 6.8% (2024: 7.8%; 2019: 6.7%)
\u2013 North-west England 8.3% (2024: 8.0%; 2019: 6.9%)
\u2013 Yorkshire & the Humber 7.7% (2024: 7.4%; 2019: 6.5%)
\u2013 West Midlands 7.4% (2024: 7.9%; 2019: 6.3%)
\u2013 East Midlands 7.4% (2024: 6.8%; 2019: 5.8%)
\u2013 Eastern England 9.3% (2024: 9.1%; 2019: 7.9%)
\u2013 South-west England 8.9% (2024: 8.8; 2019: 8.0%)
\u2013 South-east England 11.0% (2024: 10.9%; 2019: 9.0%)
\u2013 London 11.6% (2024: 11.3%; 2019: 8.7%)
\u2013 England 9.4% (2024: 9.3%; 2019: 7.7%)
\u2013 Wales 10.5% (2024: 10.1%; 2019: 8.9%)
\u2013 Northern Ireland 8.7% (2024: 8.2%; 2019: 8.0%)
\u2013 All 9.4% (2024: 9.3%; 2019: 7.7%)<\/p>\n
Here are the percentages of A-level entries awarded A or A*, by nation and region:<\/p>\n
\u2013 North-east England 22.9% (2024: 23.9%; 2019: 23.0%)
\u2013 North-west England 26.6% (2024: 25.5%; 2019: 23.5%)
\u2013 Yorkshire & the Humber 25.3% (2024: 24.6%; 2019: 23.2%)
\u2013 West Midlands 24.2% (2024: 24.8%; 2019: 22.0%)
\u2013 East Midlands 23.8% (2024: 22.5%; 2019: 21.0%)
\u2013 Eastern England 28.0% (2024: 27.5%; 2019: 25.6%)
\u2013 South-west England 27.0% (2024: 26.9%; 2019: 25.8%)
\u2013 South-east England 31.2% (2024: 30.8%; 2019: 28.3%)
\u2013 London 32.1% (2024: 31.3%; 2019: 26.9%)
\u2013 England 28.2% (2024: 27.6%; 2019: 25.2%)
\u2013 Wales 29.5% (2024: 29.9%; 2019: 26.5%)
\u2013 Northern Ireland 30.4% (2024: 30.3%; 2019: 29.4%)
\u2013 All 28.3% (2024: 27.8%; 2019: 25.4%)<\/p>\n
Here are the percentages of A-level entries awarded C or above, by nation and region:<\/p>\n
\u2013 North-east England 74.9% (2024: 74.4%; 2019: 76.3%)
\u2013 North-west England 78.2% (2024: 75.9%; 2019: 75.6%)
\u2013 Yorkshire & the Humber 76.8% (2024: 74.4%; 2019: 74.7%)
\u2013 West Midlands 74.2% (2024: 73.4%; 2019: 72.8%)
\u2013 East Midlands 73.6% (2024: 71.8%; 2019: 73.0%)
\u2013 Eastern England 77.8% (2024: 76.1%; 2019: 75.7%)
\u2013 South-west England 77.3% (2024: 76.3%; 2019: 76.0%)
\u2013 South-east England 79.45% (2024: 78.1%; 2019: 78.0%)
\u2013 London 79.54% (2024: 77.5%; 2019: 74.8%)
\u2013 England 77.7% (2024: 76.0%; 2019: 75.5%)
\u2013 Wales 77.2% (2024: 76.5%; 2019: 76.3%)
\u2013 Northern Ireland 85.8% (2024: 85.1%; 2019: 85.0%)
\u2013 All 77.9% (2024: 76.4%; 2019: 75.9%)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By contrast, north-east England had the lowest regional percentage this year at 22.9%, down from 23.9% in 2024.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-349468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115039174859822937","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}