UK theory test pass rate

The UK car driving theory test pass rate for April 2024 to March 2025 was 44.9% — meaning fewer than half of sittings result in a pass. (DVSA's figure aggregates first attempts and retakes; it does not split first-time candidates from those re-sitting after a fail.) The rate has been steadily declining from a 2007/08 peak of around 65% and has settled in the mid-40s since 2022/23.

Car theory test and driving test volumes and pass rates for Great Britain overall and for each test centre.

Latest annual pass rate

Five-year trend (2020-21 → 2024-25)

The pandemic spike of 2020-21 is the standout feature of the recent decade: with test centres closed for long stretches, learners had unprecedented time to revise, and the pass rate jumped around 8 points above the pre-pandemic baseline of the late 2010s. The decline back through 2021-22 and 2022-23 is the return to normal, not a sign of a harder test.

• 2020-21 55.7%
• 2021-22 50.1%
• 2022-23 44.2%
• 2023-24 45.2%
• 2024-25 44.9%

Pre-pandemic, the rate had been drifting downward for over a decade — from the 65.4% peak in 2007-08 to the high 40s by the late 2010s. The 2020-21 anomaly aside, the long-term direction has been steadily down as DVSA refreshed the question bank and added new categories (the silent video clip replacing the written case study from 28 September 2020, ADAS content in the 2025 edition of the Official DVSA Theory Test for Car Drivers, and CPR/AED questions added from 2026 after the 13 August 2025 DVSA announcement).

Pass rate by gender (April 2024 – March 2025)

Female candidates have consistently outperformed male candidates. The gap has held at roughly 3–4 percentage points across the last decade; it was wider (5–6 points) in the late 2000s and has narrowed since then.

Pass rate by region (recent annual figures)

Scotland has the highest theory test pass rate in Great Britain. The per-nation split above is computed by averaging the rate at each centre — small rural centres count the same as big-city ones, which widens the gap between Scotland and Wales. Weighting by the number of tests at each centre puts Scotland closer to the GB average and Wales a couple of points below it.

Best and worst test centres

Pass rates vary considerably by test centre — partly driven by population mix and partly by the proportion of repeat candidates. Extremes from the April 2024 – March 2025 DVSA centre-level data:

• Highest by raw rate: Symbister (Shetland) at 65.2% — but on only 23 tests, so volatile. The next handful (Kyle of Lochalsh 64.3%, Helmsdale 60.7%, Portree 59.2%) are all Highland centres on under 60 tests apiece — the rates are real but the small samples make them noisy year-to-year.
• Highest at city-scale volume: Royal Tunbridge Wells at 53.6% (9,724 tests), Guildford 53.6% (16,307), and Cambridge 53.2% (22,974). At ≥5,000 tests the top of the table sits in the low-to-mid 50s, not the 60s — small rural centres distort the headline.
• Lowest: Millom in Cumbria at 34.6%.

See the full top 10 and bottom 10, the biggest year-on-year movers and a breakdown by nation on our pass rate by test centre page. Use the official centre finder to see what’s near you; everyone takes the same DVSA question bank, so your centre choice does not change what’s actually tested.

Why the pass rate is lower than people expect

The pass mark is 43 out of 50 on multiple choice (86%) and 44 out of 75 on hazard perception (about 59%) — and both must be passed in the same sitting. DVSA has expanded the question bank, added the video case-study question (2020), upgraded the hazard perception clips to CGI (2015), and from 2026 has rolled out new CPR and AED questions. Each refresh tends to nudge the pass rate down a point or two until candidates and revision materials catch up.

The pass rate is not the same as the pass mark. The mark is the threshold a single candidate has to clear; the rate is how often candidates actually clear it. For a deep dive on the threshold, see the pass mark guide.

How to be in the 44.9%

1. Practise by syllabus topic before you take full mocks. The DVSA test covers 14 syllabus topics — work through them in order, then start mock tests.
2. Score 47/50 or above in practice consistently. Real-exam nerves cost a few marks; 43/50 in practice is too close to the line.
3. Practise hazard perception separately. The click-timing skill is different from multiple-choice recall — see our hazard perception explainer.
4. Don’t chase a "good week". Quarter-to-quarter variation in the GB pass rate is small — around two percentage points across recent years. Pick the date that works for your revision plan rather than gaming the calendar.
5. Book early, then keep revising. Theory test slots are usually available within 1–2 weeks; booking gives you a deadline to revise toward.

How DVSA publishes the data

DVSA publishes theory test statistics on gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/driving-test-and-theory-test-data-cars. Tables of interest:

• DRT111A — Quarterly and annual pass rates for Great Britain
• DRT111B — Monthly / quarterly / annual pass rates by gender
• DRT111C — Annual breakdown by gender and age
• DRT112A — Pass rates by gender and month at each test centre

Tables are .ods (OpenDocument Spreadsheet). The annual centre-level table ( DRT112A , used on this site for the per-centre breakdown) covers April 2024 – March 2025 and was published on 14 August 2025. The aggregate tables DRT111A and DRT111B were refreshed on 4 December 2025 with data through September 2025. DRT111A and DRT111B refresh quarterly; DRT112A and DRT111C refresh annually. We update this page when each new release lands.

Sources

• GOV.UK — Driving test and theory test data: cars (DVSA quarterly tables)
• GOV.UK — Driver and rider testing and instructor statistics: April 2023 to March 2024
• GOV.UK — Theory test: pass mark and result
• DVSA — DVSA Annual Report and Accounts 2024–2025