GCSE results day 2023: higher fall in proportion of top grades in England than in other UK nations – as it happened

Pupils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland find out their results for GCSEs and level 2 vocational technical qualifications

The gap in the top grades between boys and girls - which widened during the pandemic - has closed to its smallest level since at least 2016, with a difference of less than 6 percentage points.

A quarter (25.3%) of the entries taken by girls got a 7 or above grade (equivalent to A and A*), similar to the 25.1% of the results in 2019. The proportion of boys' results getting one of the top grades this year was 19.5%, still above the 18.6% of 2019.