New figures have revealed a stark divide in GCSE results between council areas across England, with the City of London topping the table and Knowsley recording the lowest proportion of top grades.
The City of London recorded 72.1% of grades awarded at grade 7 or above, equivalent to an A or A* under the previous grading system. Richmond upon Thames had the next-highest proportion at 43.4%, followed by Sutton on 43% and Kingston upon Thames on 42.5%.
Top Performing Councils
Trafford, in Greater Manchester, was fifth overall with 39.7% of entries achieving grade 7 or higher, making it the highest-performing area outside the south of England by a considerable margin. The next council outside the south to appear in the rankings was Rutland, in 51st place, where 28.3% of entries received the top grades. York recorded the next-highest figure in the North at 27%.
Other top-performing councils included Barnet at 37.4%, Wokingham at 35.9%, Buckinghamshire at 35.5%, Hammersmith and Fulham at 35.2%, and Wandsworth at 33.4%.
Worst Performing Councils
At the other end of the table, Knowsley recorded the lowest proportion among unitary authorities in England, with just 8.3% of grades at 7 or above. Blackpool had the second-lowest figure at 10.4%, while Halton and North East Lincolnshire both recorded 11.1%. Cumberland followed on 11.5%.
Other councils at the bottom included the Isle of Wight at 11.6%, Middlesbrough at 11.7%, Stoke-on-Trent at 11.9%, Hartlepool at 13%, and Sandwell at 13.1%.
Regional Divide Widens
The figures also reveal a significant regional divide in GCSE performance across England. London recorded the highest proportion of top grades, with 28.5% of entries awarded grade 7 or above, compared with just 17.7% in the North East, the lowest of any English region. The 10.8 percentage point gap between the two regions has widened from 10.3 percentage points last year.
The South East recorded the second-highest proportion of top grades at 24.6%, followed by the East of England at 22% and the South West at 21%. Yorkshire and the Humber stood at 19%, while 18.9% of entries in the North West received grades of 7 or above. The West Midlands recorded 18.3%, followed by the East Midlands at 18.2%.
Across England as a whole, the proportion of entries receiving the equivalent of the old A and A* grades increased slightly this year. Some 21.8% of grades were 7 or above, compared with 21.7% in 2025. The figure nevertheless remains considerably below the record reached during the Covid-19 pandemic, when 28.5% of entries received grades 7 or above in 2021.
