What Percentage of People Pass the UK Driving Test?

#The 48.66 percent and what sits under it

The UK driving test pass percentage for 2024-25 is 48.66 (volume-weighted across 327 car centres with 2024-25 data handling around 1.84 million Cat B tests). It is the most-quoted UK driving statistic and the least-useful one for any individual learner. The 48.66 number is the average of cohorts that range from 17 year olds passing at 60.75 percent down to the 55+ cohort at 36.01 percent; from low-volume Scottish centres at 67 percent down to West Midlands centres in the low 30s. A learner is in one or two of these specific cohorts, not on the national average.

The figure is broadly stable year-on-year at the percentage point level: 48.66 in 2024-25, 47.89 in 2023-24, 48.36 in 2022-23, 48.83 in 2021-22, 51.19 in 2020-21 (COVID-reduced cohort), 45.93 in 2019-20, 45.83 in 2018-19. The 2.83 percentage point rise since 2018-19 has occurred while annual test volume has risen substantially. The two trends are linked but not in the direction often assumed: the post-COVID cohort lift held longer than expected. The research/test-volume-trends page covers the volume picture in detail.

#The historical trend: 2018-19 to 2024-25

The COVID-era spike is informative. When the DVSA closed and reopened test centres in 2020-21, only the most-prepared learners continued to test (their lessons had not paused; their booking commitment was firm). The under-prepared cohort effectively withdrew temporarily. The pass percentage rose to 51.19 percent on just 37,060 tests because the cohort changed, not because the test changed. Post-COVID the under-prepared cohort returned and the pass percentage normalised. The current 48.66 percent figure is actually higher than the pre-COVID baseline of 45.83 percent in 2018-19, reflecting an upward drift in the underlying success rate rather than a structural decline.

#Centre-level variation: 33.4 to 66.7 percent (rankable headline)

The single most striking feature of UK pass percentage data is the inter-centre spread. Among rankable centres (>=1,000 tests in the 2024-25 current period, the canonical floor), the lowest centre is Wolverhampton at 33.4 percent and the highest is Dorchester at 66.7 percent. Smaller rural and island centres (Arbroath, Forfar, Peebles, Lerwick) show higher rates via rolling-3yr data but conduct fewer than 1,000 tests in any single year so they sit below the headline rankable floor. The 33.3 percentage point spread between rankable headline extremes is the largest inter-centre gap in any UK driving series. The pattern is structural: low-volume rural centres test smaller cohorts on lower-traffic routes. High-volume metropolitan and West Midlands centres test larger cohorts on dense urban routes with cycle infrastructure, box junctions, bus lanes, and frequent pedestrian crossings.

The implication for any learner: the national 48.66 percent figure is a population average, not a personal prediction. Younger, well-prepared candidates at rural Scottish centres pass at far higher rates than older, under-prepared candidates at Wolverhampton, and the national average is the smoothed midpoint between those cohorts. Which factors you can influence (preparation, centre route environment, slot timing) matters more than the headline number. The UK driving test pass rate comparison guide covers the side-by-side comparison framework.

#Why the pass percentage has shifted since 2018-19

A few factors plausibly account for the 2.83 percentage point rise since 2018-19. Cohort retention from COVID: the well-prepared cohort that continued through 2020-21 anchored the recovery, lifting the post-COVID baseline. Capacity recovery: as the post-COVID test backlog cleared, the mix of candidates testing returned closer to its long-run normal. Adult-learner growth: the over-25 demographic, which has lower baseline pass rates but commits more preparation hours on average, has grown as a share of total candidates. Marking itself is unchanged, held to the same national standard throughout.

A fourth factor sometimes cited but not borne out by data: examiner strictness. The DVSA has not changed the marking framework materially since 2017, and marking is held to a single national standard. The drift is structural (cohort retention, examiner capacity, age mix) rather than discretionary. The driving test changes 2025-2026 guide covers the recent format changes.

#The age cohort within the 48.66 percent

The age cohort gap is driven by exposure rather than capability. 17 year olds have spent their lives observing road behaviour as passengers, building unconscious familiarity with junctions, speed and other drivers. Older learners often had less of that exposure. The good news for adult learners: the gap closes substantially with full DVSA preparation. Adult learners who complete the 45-hour professional plus 22-hour private practice framework typically lift their pass percentage by 15 to 20 percentage points from the baseline. The learning to drive over 40 guide covers the adult-learner picture.

#The London picture within the 48.66 percent

The 25 London car test centres run at a volume-weighted 47.79 percent (2024-25), a 0.87 percentage point gap below the UK national 48.66. London accounts for around 245,000 tests a year (13.35 percent of the UK total). The London figure does not put it among the worst-performing regions; the West Midlands runs lower at 45.89 percent (2024-25). The London internal spread is itself wide: 36.5 percent at Chingford (London) to 59 percent at Sidcup (London), a 22.5 percentage point gap that is larger than the entire regional spread across the UK. The research/london-vs-uk-pass-rate page covers the London picture in detail.

The actionable London insight is not "London is hard" (London is roughly average) but "the centre within London matters enormously". Sidcup (London) passes at 59 percent and Chingford (London) at 36.5 percent (2024-25); that 22.5 percentage point gap between centres is the dominant lever. The why London test centres hard guide covers the route-feature explanation, applied to the specific hard centres rather than London as a whole.

#The 2026 booking rules and the pass percentage outlook

On 12 May 2026, the DVSA implemented a rule under which only you can book and manage your own test and unofficial booking-search services are banned, eliminating the third-party "ghost bookings" that bot-driven harvesters had used to lock up high-volume centre slots. The rule returned a share of those slots to the public booking system. Slot availability is expected to rise at affected centres, and wait times to fall through May to July 2026. The pass percentage effect is expected to be small in the short term (under 1 percentage point) but the medium-term effect could be more meaningful as preparation cohorts adjust to faster booking cycles.

The DVSA also continues the 450-examiner capacity expansion (estimated 280 in post by May 2026, target end of 2026), which will add a meaningful additional capacity in test slots a year. The combined effect of the 12 May rule plus the examiner expansion may stabilise or slightly raise the national pass percentage by 2026-27. The DVSA booking rule change May 2026 guide covers the mechanics.

#How to use the pass percentage data

#The pass percentage versus the first-time pass percentage

A subtle distinction: the 48.66 percent figure is the overall pass percentage across first attempts and retakes combined. The first-time pass percentage across the per-centre 2024-25 dataset is 48.91 percent, marginally higher than the all-attempt figure. The marginal first-to-overall difference hides a real pattern: well-prepared retake candidates pass second at 58 to 62 percent, while rushed retake candidates pass second at around 42 percent. The research/retake-patterns page covers the retake analysis.

#How this connects with the wider statistics picture

For the narrative hub guide covering the same data, see the UK driving test statistics 2026 guide. For the side-by-side comparison framework, see the UK driving test pass rate comparison guide. For the fail-rate inversion, see the driving test fail rate by centre guide. For the city-level breakdown, see the driving test passing rates UK cities guide. For the volume picture behind the trend, see the research/test-volume-trends page. For the practical preparation framework, see the pass driving test first time tips guide. For the 12 May 2026 booking rule, see the DVSA booking rule change May 2026 guide.

#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)
• If you fail your driving test (gov.uk)
• Change or cancel your driving test (gov.uk)
• Driving test and theory test data, cars (gov.uk)
• Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (gov.uk)
• Open Government Licence v3.0 (nationalarchives.gov.uk)