A-level results day is here once again, with teachers, parents and students all poring over the data to assess successes and consider next steps.
Beyond the top-line data - such as another rise in top grades and a widening regional disparity in those top grades - there is a raft of other interesting trends to pick out, from subjects that saw rises or declines in entries to the most popular subject combinations to gender splits of exam entries.
Tes has rounded up the data to provide you with a comprehensive overview of the key insights you need to know this A-level results day.
1. The subject popularity contest
It won’t surprise anyone that maths remains the most popular A level, with 104,580 entries this year, up 4.5 per cent on last year’s 100,052. This has been the trend for some years now.
The next three most popular subjects also remain the same as last year: psychology, with 72,927 entries; biology, with 65,331 entries; and chemistry, with 59,050 entries.
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However, history - which last year sat in fifth place - has dropped to ninth place, with 40,679 entries. In its place lies sociology, with 41,714 entries, up from seventh place last year. Interestingly, this rise has been achieved despite the subject actually having 1 per cent - or 403 entries - fewer than last year’s 42,117.
Next in the popularity list comes business studies, with 41,647 entries, 1.8 per cent up on the 40,910 entries seen last year. Physics and economics have also moved up the table into seventh and eighth place (last year they were ninth and 10th) with 41,599 and 41,507 entries respectively, and then comes history.
Just remaining in the top 10 is art and design, moving down to 10th place after ranking eighth last year. The subject had 40,293 entries, 1.2 per cent down from 40,788 in 2024.
2. Subjects on the rise
And which subjects have seen the biggest boost in popularity since last year?
Again, maths-related subjects have seen the biggest growth, most of all further maths, with entries growing 7.5 per cent, from 17,140 in 2024 to 18,434 in 2025.
Economics saw the next biggest growth, rising 5.7 per cent since last year from 39,282 to 41,507 entries, followed by maths at 4.5 per cent and physics at 4.2 per cent (from 39,937 to 41,599 entries).
Interestingly, other modern languages - subjects other than French, German and Spanish, which are counted individually - came in next, seeing a boost in popularity of 3.9 per cent on last year. Admittedly, though, this group accounts for a small number of entries in total - 6,323 compared with last year’s 6,087 - representing a slimmer cohort than further maths, for example, which has three times the number of students taking it.
Also showing an increase in popularity is political studies - which grew 1.9 per cent between 2024 and 2025 from 20,214 to 20,608 entries, perhaps reflecting students’ interest in how to navigate the increasingly tumultuous global landscape; business studies, which grew 1.8 per cent from 40,910 to 41,647; and chemistry, which grew 1.6 per cent from 58,114 to 59,050.
Spanish ranked ninth for fastest growing, showing a 1.5 per cent boost in entry figures compared with last year (from 7,665 to 7,771), while media, film and TV studies came in 10th with a 1.3 per cent increase (from 21,025 to 21,305).
3. Subjects seeing a decline
For other subjects, however, it’s worse news. Although Spanish and other modern languages saw a boost in popularity, French experienced the biggest decrease, dropping 8.5 per cent to 6,403 entries from last year’s 6,994.
The subject that experienced the second biggest decline was drama, down by 7.1 per cent (from 7,818 to 7,261), followed by more bad news for languages: entries for German dropped by 6.9 per cent, with just 2,105 students choosing the subject this year compared with 2,261 last year. This reflects a long-term steep decline for the subject.
Vicky Gough, British Council schools adviser, describes the drop in numbers of French and German entries this year as “alarming”, saying it “highlights an urgent need for the increased promotion of language learning in schools”.
She adds that “language learning is becoming a privilege of the affluent”, with fewer than one-third of the most disadvantaged schools able to run A-level language classes and a teacher recruitment crisis hitting the least affluent schools the hardest.
But the rise in popularity of Spanish shows “there is an appetite to learn languages”, Gough concludes. “To replicate this success, we must bring all languages to life through exchanges, cultural programmes and real-world connections that show students why languages matter.”
Further subjects that raise concern include geography, whose entry numbers dropped 6.4 per cent from 33,306 to 31,183, and history, which dropped 5.6 per cent from 43,101 to 40,679.
And it’s worrying news for English, with English language and literature, English literature and English language all decreasing by 6.3 per cent (from 7,048 to 6,602), 4.5 per cent (from 36,312 to 34,685) and 4.1 per cent (from 12,892 to 12,367), respectively.
Finally for this section, it may be a surprise to learn that psychology also experienced a decrease, dropping by 3.2 per cent from 75,290 to 72,927 entries, despite retaining its spot as the second most popular subject overall. This shows that, compared with maths’ continuously upward trajectory, psychology may have already reached its peak.
4. The gender subject divide
There continues to be a significant gender divide in some subjects.
As with last year, performing/expressive arts is skewed most by gender, with 95 per cent of entrants being girls. Conversely, the subject most dominated by boys is computing, for which 81.5 per cent of entrants are male.
English, sociology, art and design, drama and psychology continue to appeal most to girls, with each of these subjects having between 73 and 79 per cent female entrants.
However, physics, further maths and economics remain dominated by boys, with between 70 and 76 per cent of male entrants.
Naturally, these heavily skewed subjects raise concerns about the extent to which schools and our wider society encourage girls to pursue Stem careers, and the extent to which boys are drawn to English and the arts.
However, Becca Gooch, head of research at EngineeringUK, notes that there has been some progress, pointing out that the overall growth in physics “was driven by a 7.9 per cent increase in entries from girls”, and adding that there was also an increase in the number of girls choosing design and technology, another subject traditionally dominated by boys.
“There is, of course, still more to be done to increase the uptake of Stem subjects among girls, but today’s results show things are moving in the right direction,” Gooch says.
It’s also interesting to see which subjects manage a more even gender split: political studies is most even, with 51.8 per cent of its entrants female and 48.2 per cent male. Geography, music, history, chemistry and German are relatively equal in this regard, too.
5. Number of exams being sat
Unsurprisingly, taking three A levels is the most popular choice, with 186,945 of all 18-year-olds making this choice in 2025 - representing 66 per cent of all students. Of these, 3,890 achieved a perfect three A*.
Meanwhile, 49,795 took two A levels and 30,320 took one. Of these students, 370 and 685 achieved a perfect result of A*s, respectively.
At the other end of the scale, 14,545 students took four A levels, of whom 1,865 secured four A*s, while 195 students sat a daunting five A levels, of whom 35 scored a perfect five A*s.
6. Most popular subject combinations
Just as last year, data from Ofqual shows that biology, chemistry and maths was the most popular combination of A levels, taken by 18,585 students - 6 per cent of all those sitting the exams.
The second most popular combination was further mathematics, mathematics and physics (3.4 per cent of entries), followed by chemistry, mathematics and physics (3.1 per cent of entries).
Interestingly, though, the fourth most popular combination does not contain maths, and is instead made up of biology, chemistry and psychology.
7. AS-level entries decline again
Finally, the data reveals yet another decline in AS levels, with a hefty drop from 57,294 entries last year to 50,466 this year. This decline is part of a clear loss of interest in the qualifications, which saw 114,093 entries in 2019.
While some schools do still see merit in AS levels, their place in the assessment system seems a little uncertain, with the fall in entries replicated more widely within the entire UK data, falling from 140,287 last year to 134,235 this year.
There was no reference to AS levels at all in the and it will be interesting to see whether any plan for their future is included in the final report in the autumn.
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