GCSE trends: What this year’s results tell us

– Girls extend their lead over boys in the top grades

The proportion of female entries awarded 7/A or above this year was 33.4%: a whole 9.0 percentage points higher than male entries (24.4%). Last year, girls led boys by 8.0 percentage points (30.2% girls, 22.2% boys). This year’s figures are the highest on record for both girls and boys.

Girls also lead boys at grade 4/C, but the gap has narrowed for the fourth year in a row. A total of 80.6% of female entries were awarded 4/C or higher, compared with 73.6% for boys, a lead of 7.0 points. Last year the gap was 7.9 points.

– Spanish soars while French flounders

Spanish is already the most popular foreign language at A-level. In a few years’ time, it might also be the most popular at GCSE. There were a record 114,795 entries in Spanish this year – up 5% on last year and up 74% from 10 years ago.

It is fast closing the gap on French, which had 131,887 entries this year.
French has been suffering a slow decline for some time, with entries down 14% since 2011. German also continued its long-term decline this year, with entries down 10% on 2020 and down 37% since 2011.

– Home economics has biggest gender imbalance

GCSE home economics is about to disappear, having been formally dropped from the syllabus several years ago. Just over 2,000 candidates took home economics in 2021, of whom 98% were girls – the biggest gender imbalance of any subject.

Other subjects where girls accounted for the vast majority of entries included health and social care (95%) and performing/expressive arts (94%).

Boys made up the most entries in construction (90%) and engineering (86%).

– Music sounds a positive note

The long-term decline of GCSE music might have come to a halt. Entries rose slightly in 2021 for the second year in a row, to stand at 39,194. This is still down 19% on 10 years ago, but the future for the subject is looking more melodious than it once was.

The same cannot be said of drama, where entries resumed their descent after a small rise last year. Total entries in 2021 were 61,204, down 1% on 2020 and down 24% since 2011.

– Good news for the business of business

Business studies continues to be one of the big growth successes of recent times, with 102,542 entries in 2021 – up 4% on last year and up 47% since 2011.

There was less positive news for those concerned with the business of numbers. Entries for GCSE statistics sank by 27% year on year to just 17,913. This is down 66% on the figure for 2011.

– More than a third of London entries received the highest grades

Every region of England recorded a year-on-year rise in the proportion of GCSE entries awarded 7/A or above, but London saw the biggest jump of all, up from 31.4% to 34.5%.

Yorkshire and the Humber saw the lowest percentage awarded 7/A or above: 24.4%, up from 22.3% last year.

In Northern Ireland, nearly four in 10 (39.9%) of entries received 7/A or higher, up from 36.3% in 2020, while the percentage for Wales rose from 25.5% to 28.7%.

– The decade’s winners and losers

Ten years ago, just under one in seven GCSE entries, or 13.5%, were for humanities subjects, such as geography, history and religious studies.

By 2021 that figure had risen to nearly one in six, or 15.6%.

Over the same period, the proportion of entries in the performing arts and media has dropped from 4.2% to 2.5%.

Art, design and technology have also taken a hit, with these subjects accounting for 8.5% of entries in 2011 and 5.3% in 2021.

But science is on the up, accounting for 22.3% of entries in 2011 and 25.1% in 2021.

Languages have dropped a little, from 6.3% of entries a decade ago to 5.9% this year.

At the same time, computing subjects have increased slightly, from 0.9% to 1.6%.