A-Level Results 2024

Key Headlines

  • This year we have seen a 5% increase in the number of core STEM female entries.
  • A-Level Mathematics has become the first subject to surpass 100,000 entries, seeing a 10.9% increase in participation.
  • A-Level Computing continues to grow as we see a 28.6% increase in female participation, with female representation up from 15.1% to 17.5% in 2024.
  • A-Level Physics shows as 23.3% increase in female participation, overtaking Economics to become the 9th most popular A-Level.
  • Further Maths is the fastest growing A-Level with a 19.9% increase in entrants in 2024.

Overview of Core-STEM A-Levels

Despite seeing a 5% increase in the number of core STEM female entries, the proportional representation has dropped slightly just below 43%. This is due to an increase in male participation rather than us seeing a drop in female participation.

Overall, the story is positive with more girls participating across the core-STEM subjects, with the only, very marginal, decrease being seen in Biology.

There is still a gap between male and female entries for core-STEM subjects with male entries increasing considerably this year. 2024 data trends reflect the larger total number of A-Levels entries for 2024 than in previous years. This year, core-STEM subjects accounted for 30.3% of all female A-Level entries, compared to 47.7% for male A-Level entries. This is an increase for both female and male entries, but with a more noticeable 2% increase for males from last year.

 

Computing A-Level

Computing A-Level continues to attract more entrants, seeing a very considerable uptake in female entrants with a 28.6% increase compared to 2024.

It is very encouraging to see an increase in the number of female entrants for the Computing A-Level again this year. Numbers participating in Computing still remain lower than other core-STEM subjects such as Maths and Physics but there is a steady rise in uptake year-on-year.

Although the rise in female uptake is something to celebrate, they still only make up 17.5% of entries. This makes it clear there is still a lot to do to ensure the inclusion of women and girls within Computing.  

 

Science Subjects

Science A-Level subjects remain some of the most popular with Biology, Chemistry & Physics being the 3rd, 4th and 9th most popular A-Levels overall. Most notably, Physics has seen a 12.3% increase in participation in 2024, seeing it surpass Economics to take the 9th spot.

 

Despite a slight drop in female participation this year, Biology continues to be the most popular A-Level for female entries by some distance. The percentage of female entries for the Biology A- Level has kept at 63.5%. For Chemistry A-Levels, female entries have seen a slight increase with them making up 56.2% of overall entries in 2024.

After seeing a decrease last year, we’re pleased that Physics A-Level has seen a considerable participation increases this year of 12.3% across the board. This has been positive for female entrants too, seeing a 13.7% female participation increase. The overall number of females has increased from 23% to 23.3%. A step in the right direction but still showing Physics to be noticeably behind Biology and Chemistry in terms of popularity with females.

Mathematics A-Level

 

Mathematics continues to be the most popular A-Level amongst students by some margins. This year it became the first subject to surpass 100,000 entrants with a 10.9% participation increase. 

Despite the number of female entrants increasing by 9.5%, this huge jump in overall participation has seen the gender gap grow between female and male entrants with females now making up 37.2%, down from 37.7% last year. Although this is disappointing, we shouldn’t see it as a negative, as participation is still on the rise and the popularity of Mathematics has also seen a huge rise in those taken Further Mathematics.

In 2024, Further Mathematics has become the fastest growing A-Level with 19.9% increase in participation. We see a 15.7% increase in female participation, but again due to soaring participation rates with males the overall female entrants make up 27.1% in 2024, compared to 28.1% in 2023.

A-Levels 2023 – Top Grades

The following statistics show the number of female entrants achieving the top grades in A-Level STEM subjects:

Biology: Female entrants in biology outperformed male entrants. 28.5% of female entrants were awarded A or A*, an increase from 27.3% in 2023.

Chemistry: 31.5% of female entrants were awarded A or A*, an increase from 29.9% in 2023.

Computing: Female entrants outperformed male entrants in computing with 26.5% awarded A or A*, compared to 25% in 2023.

Design and Technology: Female entrants outperformed male entrants with 24.7% awarded A or A* compared to 23.5% in 2023.

Mathematics: 41.2% of female entrants were awarded A or A* compared to 40.9% in 2023.

Further Mathematics: 57.2% of female entrants were awarded A or A* compared to 55.4% in 2023.

Physics: 31.7% of female entrants were awarded A or A* compared to 30.2% in 2023.

Other Sciences: The only Core STEM subject that saw a decrease in high level attainment -20.6% of female entrants were awarded A or A* compared to 24% in 2023.

WISE Managing Director, Dr Laura Norton commented that it has been great to see female participation rates rising but that “Despite us seeing a positive increase in female uptake, it’s concerning to see the gap is growing between male and female participation in Core-STEM subjects as a whole. Today is yet another reminder of the persisting problem that we all face”

Read the full news story here.

Get in Touch with WISE

WISE exists to deliver women-centred equity, diversity and inclusion to the STEM sectors, with many leading UK organisations improving their gender balance through membership.

To speak to someone about membership, email info@wisecampaign.org.uk or visit the membership page for more details.

*Core-STEM A-Level subjects include Biology, Chemistry, Computing, Design & Technology, Mathematics, Mathematics (Further), Physics and Other Sciences.