Chichester Driving Test Centre: 64.2% Pass Rate (UK Rank 3, 2024-25)

#What the 64.2% figure means in practice

A pass rate of 64.2% at Chichester means that roughly two in three candidates leave the test centre with a full driving licence on the day of the test. Nationally, the comparable figure is 48.7%, so Chichester passes candidates at a rate roughly 28% higher by absolute number. The practical implication is that at Chichester you are statistically more likely to pass than to fail, which holds true for only a handful of centres across the country.

For context among the top performers nationally: Dorchester in Dorset leads the ranking at 66.7% (4,561 tests), followed by Kendal (Oxenholme Road) in Cumbria at 64.8% (2,149 tests), then Chichester at 64.2% (5,295 tests), and Bangor (Wales) in fourth at 64.1%. The four top centres in the country are grouped within a 2.6-percentage-point band. Chichester is notable within that group for its test volume: at 5,295 tests it conducts more than double the number of tests as Kendal, meaning the 64.2% figure is a statistically robust result rather than a small-sample outlier.

The structural reason for Chichester's high pass rate is the road environment. Chichester is a cathedral market town in West Sussex with a grid-plan city centre, well-marked road layouts, and direct access to the A27 dual carriageway. Test routes do not expose candidates to the sustained high-density stop-start traffic pressure of a large urban conurbation. The road mix demands accurate lane discipline, precise mirror-signal-manoeuvre technique, and correct handling of roundabouts on approach, but not the kind of compressed hazard-management load that reduces pass rates in towns like Crawley (40.1%) or inner London centres.

#Chichester test routes and what they cover

The Chichester DVSA test centre sits close to the city's southern ring road. Routes start and end at the centre and typically draw on the following road environments:

• The A27 Chichester bypass: a dual carriageway with national speed limit (70 mph), marked lanes and slip-road junctions. Examiners use this section to test dual-carriageway lane discipline, overtaking awareness, and correct joining and leaving technique.
• The A259 toward Fishbourne and Southbourne: a mixed-speed route that transitions between 30 mph residential zones and national speed limit open sections, with right-turn junctions and pedestrian crossings through built-up areas.
• Chichester city centre: the historic grid approaches via ring-road roundabouts and short signalled roads. The pedestrianised core channels test routes through specific approach streets where correct lane selection on arrival at the roundabout is a common observation point.
• Portfield, Whyke and Stockbridge Road: suburban residential streets with 20 mph zones and parked vehicles on both sides, where consistent mirror-to-mirror checking before passing stationary cars is tested throughout.
• The B2145 Selsey road south of the city: a relatively clear single-carriageway national speed limit road through flat agricultural land, offering a straightforward higher-speed section with lower hazard complexity than the urban routes.

The absence of a motorway within the standard test area (the nearest is the A3(M) near Petersfield, roughly 20 miles north-east) means the A27 dual carriageway is as demanding as the route gets in terms of speed. That is manageable for most candidates who have had proper dual-carriageway exposure during lessons. The route mix as a whole rewards accurate junction observation, correct lane positioning at roundabouts, and consistent mirror discipline rather than high-density hazard processing under time pressure.

#How Chichester compares to nearby test centres

Among the south of England centres within roughly 40 miles, the nearest in pass rate is Worthing at 58.8%, a 5.4-percentage-point gap. Eastbourne follows at 52.1%, then Portsmouth and Guildford both at 51.8%, and Crawley at the bottom of the local group at 40.1%. The 24.1-point spread between Chichester and Crawley illustrates how sharply road environment shapes test outcomes: both centres are in the south of England but Crawley's busy dual-carriageway interchanges and high-volume roundabouts create a substantially harder environment than Chichester's cathedral market town.

For learners who currently live in the Portsmouth or Guildford catchment, the gap to Chichester is 12.4 percentage points. The should I travel for an easier test guide examines whether that gap makes the journey worthwhile. The short answer is that it does if you can arrange a lesson or two on Chichester routes beforehand, but it does not if you plan to take the test cold in an unfamiliar area. Route familiarity on the A27 sections and the ring-road roundabouts matters as much as the headline pass rate, and arriving without having driven the area reduces the advantage considerably.

#Gender split at Chichester

Male candidates pass at 63.8% and female candidates at 64.7% at Chichester in 2024-25, a gap of just 0.9 percentage points with female candidates marginally ahead. The national gender gap for 2024-25 runs in the opposite direction, with male candidates passing at 49.5% and female candidates at 47.6%, a 1.9-point difference in favour of males. Chichester's near-identical rate across genders, with females slightly above males, is relatively unusual and suggests the route environment does not structurally favour one group over the other.

The test counts behind these figures are 2,875 male candidates and 2,420 female candidates. At those volumes the confidence intervals are approximately plus or minus 1.8 and 2.0 percentage points respectively, which means the 0.9-point gap sits within the statistical noise range. Gender is not a meaningful predictor of pass probability at Chichester: the routes affect male and female candidates at essentially the same rate.

#Pass rate trend: 2017-18 to 2024-25

Chichester held a pass rate in the low-to-mid 50s from 2017-18 through 2019-20, then jumped sharply to 65.8% in 2021-22 when testing resumed after the pandemic suspension. That jump is consistent with what happened nationally: candidates who had waited longer before testing were, on average, better prepared, and the post-lockdown cohort worked through with higher pass rates across most centres. Since 2022-23 the rate has stabilised in the 63-65% range, roughly 10 percentage points above the pre-pandemic baseline.

The 2024-25 figure of 64.2% confirms the post-pandemic improvement is structural rather than a short-term anomaly. The 2023-24 dip to 63.0% was the first year below 64% since testing resumed and may partly reflect the larger test cohort that year (7,210 tests versus 3,668 in 2021-22 when the elevated rate was first recorded). The 2024-25 recovery to 64.2% on a smaller but still substantial volume of 5,295 tests indicates the elevated plateau is holding.

#First-time candidates at Chichester

Of the 5,295 tests conducted at Chichester in 2024-25, 3,170 were first attempts. Those candidates produced 2,048 passes: a first-time pass rate of 64.6%. This is marginally above the overall rate of 64.2%, which is an uncommon pattern. At most UK centres the overall pass rate slightly exceeds the first-time rate because repeat candidates who have learned from a previous fail typically push the headline figure upward. Chichester's near-identical first-time and overall rates (within 0.4 percentage points) indicate that repeat candidates do not hold a structural advantage here: a first-attempt candidate has essentially the same statistical chance as someone taking a second or third test.

This matters practically for learners deciding whether to book at Chichester. The centre does not disproportionately reward experienced retakers who have memorised the routes. A candidate on a first attempt should treat the 64.6% first-time rate as their own personal baseline, not the lower figure that applies at many urban centres where repeat candidates cluster to benefit from known routes.

#Should you travel to Chichester for your test?

Chichester is worth considering as a travel destination if your nearest test centre has a pass rate of 55% or below and you can manage the logistics. The south of England centres in that range include Crawley (40.1%), and the mid-range options such as Portsmouth (51.8%), Guildford (51.8%) and Eastbourne (52.1%) still sit 12 to 24 percentage points below Chichester. The easiest vs hardest test centres guide sets out the full national picture and helps you benchmark your local centre before deciding whether to travel.

The three conditions under which travelling to Chichester is likely to be worthwhile are:

• You can arrange at least one lesson covering the A27 slip-road section and the main ring-road roundabouts, either with a Chichester-based instructor or by travelling to the area with your regular instructor. Route familiarity on those two elements specifically reduces the main sources of minor and major faults.
• The travel time from your home to Chichester is under 60 minutes by car, so you arrive at the test centre calm rather than stressed from a long journey. DVSA guidance recommends arriving 15 minutes early, which becomes harder to achieve reliably if the journey itself is stressful or prone to delay.
• The wait time for a Chichester test slot is not significantly longer than at your local centre. Waiting times across UK centres fluctuate throughout the year. The driving test wait times guide covers how to track current availability, and the driving test cancellations guide explains how to find earlier slots if the standard wait is too long.

If you are already based in Chichester or within the West Sussex coastal catchment (Bognor Regis, Selsey, Emsworth, Havant), Chichester is the natural first-choice centre. The 12.4-point advantage over Portsmouth and the 5.4-point advantage over Worthing are meaningful: on a first attempt, the difference between 64.2% and 51.8% is the difference between expecting to pass and expecting to fail. The driving test centres with shortest waits guide also covers how to identify centres with both high pass rates and lower waiting times.

#Sources and further reading

The figures, fees, and procedures referenced in this article are verifiable on the official gov.uk pages below. PassRates.uk is built on the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s open data, published under the Open Government Licence.

• Driving test (gov.uk)
• Book your driving test (gov.uk)
• If you fail your driving test (gov.uk)
• Change or cancel your driving test (gov.uk)
• Find a driving test centre (gov.uk)
• Open Government Licence v3.0 (nationalarchives.gov.uk)