A-level results 2026: top grades edge up again, and the regional gap widens
Results day fell on Thursday 13 August, and the national picture was one of small movements at the top rather than any correction. Top grades rose for a third year running, the gap between London and the weakest-performing regions grew, and a slightly smaller share of English 18-year-olds got their first-choice university place. GCSE results follow on Thursday 20 August.
Published 15 August 2026
Top grades edge up for a third year
A* grades went to 9.6% of entries, up from 9.4% last year, and 28.3% of entries were awarded an A or an A*, up from 28.2%. Both figures have now risen in each of the three years since grading was brought back towards pre-pandemic norms, though the annual steps are small.
The direction matters more than the size of the move. Universities and sixth forms setting offers are working against a distribution that is drifting upwards slowly rather than one that resets each year, which is why a grade profile that looked competitive two years ago is no longer quite the same signal.
Source: Schools Week.
London finishes 9.6 points clear of the North East
The regional spread widened to 9.6 percentage points. London led with 32.7% of entries at A or above, while the East Midlands and the North East were joint lowest on 23.1%. That is a bigger gap than the national averages suggest and it is the figure worth watching in any local analysis of results.
Two other shifts stand out. Boys outperformed girls at the top grades for the first time since the pandemic, though girls still made up 54% of entries and took the majority of A* awards overall. And 78.3% of English 18-year-olds secured their first-choice university place, down from 81.5%, which suggests offer-making tightened rather than results falling.
Source: Schools Week.
The volumes behind the headlines
Ofqual's summer 2026 statistics, published on results day, put the scale of it: 835,950 A level results issued in England to 320,505 students across 2,835 schools and colleges, plus 48,835 AS results.
On the vocational side, 19,860 students received their T Level technical qualification results, made up of 23,600 core results and 19,730 occupational specialism results. Between 1 March and 31 August, 221,095 results at pass or above were issued for other vocational and technical qualifications, 195,190 of them applied generals and 25,905 tech levels.
Source: Ofqual, qualification results in England, summer 2026.
GCSE results land on Thursday 20 August
Level 1/2 and level 2 results, including GCSEs, are released on 20 August, and Ofqual will update the same statistical release that day. Pupils still collect their results in person at school from the morning.
This is also the first summer that the Education Record app is available to Year 11 pupils across England, after pilots in Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. It stores grades permanently so young people can retrieve them years later, and the department expects it to save schools and colleges up to £30 million a year in administration. Schools and colleges were asked to register ahead of the August results days.
Source: DfE.
What it means for families and schools
For students holding an offer, the practical work now is the appeals and remarks timetable rather than the national statistics. For schools, the widening regional gap is the number that will be quoted back at you in September, so it is worth knowing where your own cohort sits against the regional figure, not just the national one. Our guides to what Progress 8 measures and how Ofsted ratings work cover the accountability side.