Students across Greater Manchester received their A-level results on Thursday, August 13, revealing stark differences in performance across the region's ten boroughs. Trafford emerged as the best-performing borough, with over 45% of students achieving an A or A* grade. In contrast, Salford recorded the lowest proportion, with only 13.6% of students earning top grades, compared to a national average of 28%.
Borough-by-borough breakdown
Stockport and Manchester were the only other areas to outperform the national average, with 33.70% and 30.40% of students respectively achieving an A or above. The remaining boroughs fell below the average: Rochdale and Wigan both recorded 25.40%, Bolton 20.60%, Bury 20.40%, Oldham 19.70%, and Tameside 17.00%.
National trends in A-level entries
Across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, hundreds of thousands of pupils opened their results on Thursday morning. The total number of A-level entries surpassed 900,000 for the first time, driven by an increase in the 18-year-old population. More than a quarter (28.5%) of UK entries were awarded an A or A* grade, up by 0.2 percentage points from last year's 28.3%.
Maths remained the most popular A-level subject for the 13th consecutive year. Boys outperformed girls in top grades for the second year in a row, with 28.9% of boys' entries scoring an A* or A, compared to 28.0% for girls – a gap of 0.9 percentage points.
Results day for all qualifications
School and college leavers also received their AS grades and results for vocational technical qualifications (VTQs) at Level 3. Students in England additionally received their T-level results, which were introduced as technical alternatives to A-levels.
