NewsUK NewsGCSEsAnxious youngsters up and down the country have been finding out their GCSE results this morning with the City of London coming out best for A or A* grades12:45, 20 Aug 2026Updated 12:46, 20 Aug 2026Shocking GCSE results maps show the massive gulf between London, the south of the country, and the north and Midlands when it comes to top grades.‌Anxious youngsters up and down the country have been opening up their GCSE results today as they plan their futures at sixth form, college or in training.‌In London, 28.5% of grades were seven or higher. That’s A or A* in traditional grades. In the South East the percentage was 24.6%, East of England saw 22.0% and in the South West it was 21.0%.‌But further north the figures drop to 19.0% in Yorkshire and The Humber, 18.9% in the North West, 18.3% in the West Midlands and 18.2% in the East Midlands.The North East had the worst GCSE results of any region in England. Just 17.7% of grades in the region were seven or higher - it’s a gap of 10.8 percentage points from London and that’s up from a gap of 10.3 points last year.‌The City of London is the council that comes out on top for A or A* grades with nearly three quarters (72.1%) of all grades at seven or above.Richmond upon Thames had the next best results with 43.4% achieving a grade seven or higher. That’s followed by fellow London boroughs of Sutton at 43.0% and Kingston upon Thames at 42.5%.Trafford in Greater Manchester came next with the fifth best results in the country - with 39.7% achieving a grade 7 or above which is the highest score outside of the south of England by some distance.‌You have to go all the way down to 51st place to find the next highest council outside of the south with Rutland at 28.3%. The next highest in the North is York with 27.0%.‌‌Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said: "It is a damning indictment of 21st-century Britain that where you happen to grow up has such a profound impact on your educational and life chances."Something is fundamentally amiss when children with the same talents and potential face such different prospects simply because of where they happen to live. England’s educational divide is a story of London increasingly pulling away from much of the rest of the country."But these broad regional divides conceal an even more troubling geography of opportunity: sometimes a few streets, or a different postcode, can make the difference between a life of opportunity and a life of overlooked talent."‌The proportion of GCSE entries awarded top grades has risen from last year but the rate scoring a decent pass has returned to pre-pandemic levels, national figures show.While traditional A*-G grades are used in Northern Ireland and Wales, in England these have been replaced with a 9-1 system, where 9 is the highest. A 4 is broadly equivalent to a C grade and a 7 is broadly equivalent to an A.Overall entries for GCSEs have risen slightly – up 0.6% on 2025 – after dropping last year. The overall rate for grades 1/G or above is 97.9%, which is the same as 2025 but is down on 98.3% in 2019.‌Proportion of students achieving A or A* by regionLondon 28.5%South East 24.6%Eastern 22%South West 21%Yorkshire and The Humber 19%North West 18.9%West Midlands 18.3%East Midlands 18.2%North East 17.7%Best performing councilsCity of London 72.1%Richmond upon Thames 43.4%Sutton 43.0%Kingston upon Thames 42.5%Trafford 39.7%Barnet 37.4%Wokingham 35.9%Buckinghamshire 35.5%Hammersmith and Fulham 35.2%Wandsworth 33.4%Southwark 33.3%Slough 31.9%Merton 31.8%Hackney 31.2%Cambridgeshire 30.9%Surrey 30.7%Reading 30.6%Kensington and Chelsea 30.5%Southend-on-Sea 30.3%Ealing 30.2%Worst performing councilsKnowsley 8.3%Blackpool 10.4%Halton 11.1%North East Lincolnshire 11.1%Cumberland 11.5%Isle of Wight 11.6%Middlesbrough 11.7%Stoke-on-Trent 11.9%Hartlepool 13.0%Sandwell 13.1%Rochdale 13.2%South Tyneside 13.2%North Lincolnshire 13.3%Dudley 13.4%St. Helens 13.9%Rotherham 14.1%Staffordshire 14.3%Redcar and Cleveland 14.9%Swindon 14.9%Portsmouth 15.0%Shropshire 15.0%Article continues belowChoose Daily Mirror as a 'Preferred Source' on Google News for quick access to the news you value.‌GCSEs