This blog explores the initial JCQ 2026 A level data for 18 year olds in England and you can use the tools below to dig deeper into trends over time and subject grade breakdowns.
Grade breakdown over time
There were more than 770,000 A level entries across all 18-year-old students in England this year. This is a 2.9% increase from the number of entries in 2025.
A Level results improved very slightly again this year. There was a rise in the proportion of entries achieving A*-C grades, up to by 0.4% points to 79.1% of all entries in 2026. The proportion achieving top grades also increased this year, with 28.7% of entries achieving an A* or A.
As in 2025 grade B remains the most common outcome, with more than a quarter (27.7%) of entries across all subjects achieving a B grade in 2025 (up from 27.3% in 2025).
Although the proportion of entries achieving top grades increased, this change was not consistent across all subjects. Compared with outcomes in 2025, 27 of the 42 subjects saw an increase in the proportion of entries achieving a A*-C grade. However, just under half of the subjects (20) saw an increase in the proportion of entries achieving A* or A grades. Standouts were:
- PE, Media studies and D&T saw some of the largest rises in the proportion of entries achieving an A*-C grade – all increasing by 2% points or more from the 2025 levels.
- German and other modern languages (excluding French and Spanish) saw the largest drops in the proportion of entries achieving an A* or A grade – at 2.3% points and 3.0% points falls in the top grades from the 2025 levels respectively.
- Aside from subjects with a small number of entries, the biggest decrease in the proportion of students achieving A*-C grade were in Performing / Expressive Arts and Electronics at 3.0% and 3.9% respectively.
Explore this year’s A level grades by subject in our interactive tool
A level grade breakdown by subject
Mathematics, followed by Psychology and Biology continue to be the three most popular subjects. The entries for these three subjects make up almost three in ten of all (29.5%) entries in 2026.
- Some subjects have seen large much larger increases in the number of entries from 2025 to 2026 than others. Politics, Law, Economics and Further Maths all stand out as having more than a 9% increase in the number of entries from 2025.
- In contrast, there has been a decrease in the number of entries for both Philosophy and Drama, with 12.3% and 8.6% falls from the 2025 levels respectively.
- Despite relatively large entry sizes of more than 10,000 in 2026, entries fell significantly from 2025 levels in Religious Studies, Sociology and English Literature, with English Literature seeing the largest decrease here at 2%.
- At 43%, the proportion of maths entries graded at a A* or A is well above the average across all subjects (of 28.7%).
- Overall, subjects with the largest proportion of students achieving A* – C grades were Classical Greek, Other Modern Languages, Biblical Hebrew (only 16 entries) and Further Maths all at over 92%.
