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At the end of secondary school education, 16-year-olds in the UK take their GCSE exams – in 2019 over 4.6 million students took these exams. We unpacked the statistics to find out the lowdown on GCSE exams and results.
Quick overview
- 4.6 million 16-year-olds took GCSE exams in the UK in 2019
- There are 4,160 secondary schools in the UK in 2018/19
- 49% of government education spending was on secondary schools in 2018/19
- Most students took 8 or 9 GCSE subjects in 2019 (50%)
- 67% of students passed their GCSEs (grade C/4 and above)
- 1 in 5 students achieved a grade A (or grade 7) and above in 2019
Number of schools in the UK
There are over 30,000 schools in the UK in 2018/19, 4,190 of which are secondary schools. There are significantly more primary schools than there are secondary schools in the UK, with 20,840 open in 2018/19, which is almost 5 times as many as there are secondary schools.
Explore the graphic and table below to see the total number of schools by type in 2018/19.
| Type of school | Number of schools in 2017/18 |
|---|---|
| Nurseries | 3,040 |
| Primary | 20,840 |
| Secondary | 4,190 |
| Other | 4,050 |
Expenditure on schools in the UK
Over the past 19 years (2000/01–2018/19) the amount of public sector spending on education has almost doubled (1.9x). The total spending in 2018/19 was £89.4 billion, with 49% of this being spent on secondary school education. Secondary school spending is 1.4x more than pre-primary and primary school spending.
| Type | Public sector expenditure on education in the UK in 2018/19 (in millions) |
|---|---|
| Secondary education | £43,913 |
| Pre-primary and primary education | £31,095 |
| Tertiary education | £4,621 |
| Subsidiary services to education | £3,557 |
| Education n.e.c.* | £2,584 |
| R&D education | £2,259 |
| Education not definable by level | £789 |
| Post-secondary non-tertiary education | £607 |
GCSE results
In 2019 over 4.6 million 16-year-olds took their GCSE exams in England, which was 50,000 more than in 2018. The majority of students took 8 or 9 GCSE subjects (50.1%). Meanwhile a small percentage of students took 10 or more GCSE exams (17.7%) in 2019, a total of 103,000 students. 1 in 20 students in 2019 took between 1 and 3 GCSE exams, a total of 29,800 students.
Explore the graph and table below to see how many GCSE exams students took in 2019.
| Number of GCSE's taken | Number of students | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8,750 | 1.5% |
| 2 | 11,350 | 2% |
| 3 | 9,700 | 1.7% |
| 4 | 9,500 | 1.6% |
| 5 | 17,550 | 3% |
| 6 | 43,400 | 7.5% |
| 7 | 86,900 | 15% |
| 8 | 134,150 | 23.1% |
| 9 | 156,700 | 27% |
| 10 | 84,050 | 14.5% |
| 11 | 17,450 | 3% |
| 12+ | 1,350 | 0.2% |
| Total | 580,850 | 100% |
GCSE pass percentage
In general the number of students achieving a grade A or above is around one in five students doing so. In 2018/19 the number of students who achieved a grade A or above was 20.6%, the highest amount since 2015 (21%). Two thirds (67%) of students achieved a grade of C or above in 2018/19, the highest amount since 2013. Over the last 11 years fewer than 2% of students failed their GCSE exams, in 2019 98.3% of students achieved at least one grade of G or above, just slightly less than the year before.
| Year | 1 and above (Grade G) | 4 and above (Grade C) | 7 and above (Grade A) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 98.4% | 65.5% | 20.6% |
| 2009 | 98.6% | 66.9% | 21.5% |
| 2010 | 98.7% | 69.0% | 22.6% |
| 2011 | 98.8% | 69.8% | 23.3% |
| 2012 | 99.0% | 69.5% | 22.3% |
| 2013 | 98.8% | 67.9% | 21.2% |
| 2014 | 98.5% | 68.6% | 21.1% |
| 2015 | 98.6% | 68.8% | 21.0% |
| 2016 | 98.4% | 66.6% | 20.3% |
| 2017 | 98.5% | 66.1% | 19.8% |
| 2018 | 98.4% | 66.6% | 20.3% |
| 2019 | 98.3% | 67.0% | 20.6% |
Sources
- Gov.uk
- HESA
- Ofqual
Click here for more research. For all media enquiries, please contact:
Matt Mckenna
UK communications manager
T: +44 20 8191 8806
UK communications manager
T: +44 20 8191 8806
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