GCSE geography results analysis 2026

Many congratulations from the Geographical Association to the 299.3K students who received their GCSE geography results and wishing them well for their futures be it further study, vocational course or the workplace.

A few headlines from the GCSE results analysis include:

Overall, for the UK[1] in 2026:

• GCSE outcomes for all subjects were very similar to 2025 (and 2024), with an increase of 0.1% at the grade 7/A benchmark and a decrease of 0.1% at 4/C.
• GCSE geography outcomes were also broadly similar to 2024 and 2025, with small increases at the three grade benchmarks, alongside a small decrease in entries.

[1] England, Northern Ireland and Wales (not Scotland)

Comparing GCSE entries and results for the UK:

• the UK population of 16-year-olds has increased by 0.3 million between 2023 and 2026. This growing cohort largely drove an increase in entries of 0.6% this year to 6.2 million students of all ages. There has been a slight increase in over-16 entries.
• UK GCSE entries for all subjects are 92% in England, 3% in Northern Ireland and 5% in Wales, compared with 95% of geography entries in England, 2% in Northern Ireland and 2% in Wales.
• There has been no change in the top ten highest entry subjects since 2020. Geography was again ranked sixth, but with a small decrease in entries to 299,306 (4.8%) compared with 302,706 (9%) in 2025.
• Overall results for 16-year-olds remain higher for female students, including in geography; however, this achievement gap has again reduced slightly.

View the full analysis report of the GCSE results here.

GCSE geography results school calculator 2026

The GA’s GCSE results calculator enables you to compare your school or college results with the national picture for 2026 – simply key in your school geography results to automatically chart the comparison, as well as identify changes from previous years. You can compare results across the United Kingdom (England, Wales and Northern Ireland).

Try out the DIY GCSE comparison spreadsheet here.

Access the JCQ interactive GCSE dashboard here: https://www.jcq.org.uk/gcse-interactive-results-dashboard/