Historical trend
Trend summary
67.3% of GCSE entries in England achieved grade 4 or above in summer 2024, broadly unchanged from 67.4% in 2023.
Trend
- The grade 4+ pass rate rose sharply in 2020 (75.9%) and 2021 (79.1%) during COVID-19 teacher-assessed grading, then normalised to 74.5% in 2022 and 67.4% in 2023.
- The 2024 rate of 67.3% is in line with the pre-pandemic 2019 level of 67.3%, following a planned post-pandemic grade normalisation by Ofqual.
- The proportion achieving grade 7–9 (equivalent to A/A*) has been broadly stable at around 23% since 2022.
Context
- DfE publishes GCSE results for England annually in October; the numerical grading scale (9–1) replaced A*–G from summer 2017.
- Grade 4 is described as a "standard pass" and grade 5 as a "strong pass" in DfE guidance.
Commentary contains no editorial judgement — describes direction, magnitude, and official projections only.
About this indicator
- Source
- Department for Education
- Update frequency
- Annual
- Last updated
- 20 June 2026
- Licence
- OGL v3
- Direction
- ↓ Falling
Statistics
- Latest
- 67 %
- Period high
- 67 %
- Period low
- 67 %
- Period average
- 67 %