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A level geography experiences drop in popularity
Following several years of increases in geography A level candidate numbers the subject experienced a drop in popularity in 2018.
At A level there was a 11.3% decrease in UK geography entries, down from 37,814 entries in 2017 to 33,538 in 2018.
There were 3.5% fewer 18-year olds in the population compared to the previous year, and a 2% decrease in candidate numbers across all subjects.
In 2017 geography was the 8th most popular subject at A level and 7th at AS level with candidate numbers rising by 4% compared to the previous year. In 2017 AS level geography had the biggest uptake among the humanities.
In 2018 A level geography is the 10th most popular subject at A level and has fallen out of the top ten at AS level. Uptake at AS level decreased by 64.2% from 27,617 entries in 2017 to 9,875. The average decrease among all AS subjects was 52.5% due to the decoupling of AS from A level.
Geography remains one of the most gender equal subjects with 16,310 (48.6%) male entries and 17,228 (51.4%) female entries.
The proportion of A*-C grades remained similar to previous years, with 81% of A level entries achieving a grade C or above (24.9% A and A*) and 63.2% of AS level entries earning a C grade or above (21.6% achieving an A).
STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths) continued to rise in popularity, with 36.2% of all entries in one of those subjects in 2018, a substantial increase from 28% in 2009. This may provide some explanation for the change in entry numbers among certain facilitating subjects such as geography.
Source: https://www.jcq.org.uk/
Results reports older than 3 years have now been archived. If you would like to view the full report please email info@geography.org.uk.
Go to the GCSE and A level results for geography page to view results and analyses from previous years.
