How to read the UK driving test centre map
The map plots every active DVSA test centre across Great Britain, 654 in all, with each marker coloured by the centre’s real pass rate. Tap or click any centre to open its full record: the current pass rate, how many tests it runs, the typical wait, and where it sits in the national ranking. The map is the fastest way to see how the centres near you compare before you commit to a booking.
Below the map, the rest of this page is the reference material that makes those markers mean something: what the colours are measuring, which centres currently sit at the top and bottom of the table, how long people are actually waiting in each region, and how to weigh two centres against each other when both are within reach.
What the colours mean
Markers follow a simple three-band scale. Green marks a centre passing 55 percent or more of candidates, the quieter routes near the top of the table. Amber covers the broad middle, 45 to 54 percent, where most urban and suburban centres sit. Red flags a centre passing under 45 percent, almost always a busy city centre with demanding routes. The national average sits around 49 percent, so amber is roughly average and green is comfortably above it.
A pass rate is the centre’s, not yours
The percentage is the share of tests at that centre that ended in a pass over the period, a property of the local roads and the mix of candidates who book there, not a prediction of your personal odds. Your own result depends far more on your preparation and how well you know the routes around the centre. A low rate is a signal that the local roads are demanding, not that the examiners mark harder; the DVSA standard is identical everywhere.
Treat the smallest centres with care
A centre that runs only a few hundred tests a year can swing several points on chance alone, so a very high or very low figure at a tiny rural or island centre is less reliable than the same figure at a centre running thousands of tests. We hold the smallest centres out of the rankings for exactly this reason, and the map shows their volume so you can weigh the number accordingly.
Filtering and searching
Use the car, motorcycle and heavy-vehicle tabs to switch between test types, since pass rates differ sharply across them. Search by place name or postcode to jump straight to your area, then compare neighbouring centres side by side. For the full tables, see the easiest and hardest centre rankings; for a single town, the city pages group every nearby centre with its rate and wait, and the statistics overview sets the national picture.
The ten green markers with the highest pass rates
These are the ten car test centres with the highest pass rates on the current DVSA release, covering 2024-25, restricted to centres that ran at least 1,000 tests in the period. Find any of them on the map and you will see the same green band; the table simply orders them. Every name links through to that centre’s own record.
| Centre | Pass rate | Tests, 2024-25 |
|---|---|---|
| DorchesterDorset | 66.7% | 4,561 |
| Kendal (Oxenholme Road)England | 64.8% | 2,149 |
| ChichesterWest Sussex | 64.2% | 5,295 |
| BangorGwynedd | 64.1% | 3,433 |
| Melton MowbrayEngland | 63.9% | 2,486 |
| NewtownCymru / Wales | 63.7% | 1,740 |
| IpswichSuffolk | 63.1% | 10,724 |
| HaddingtonAlba / Scotland | 62.2% | 1,890 |
| Barrow In FurnessWestmorland and Furness | 61.9% | 1,735 |
| BarryVale of Glamorgan | 61.8% | 1,621 |
Full table: the 50 easiest centres.
The ten red markers with the lowest pass rates
The same filter applied from the other end. These centres pass the smallest share of their candidates, and they cluster in dense urban areas where test routes carry multi-lane junctions, bus lanes and heavy traffic at typical test slots. A low figure here is a reason to spend more lessons on the local roads, not a reason to write the centre off: thousands of people pass at every one of them each year.
| Centre | Pass rate | Tests, 2024-25 |
|---|---|---|
| WolverhamptonWest Midlands | 33.4% | 11,719 |
| FeatherstoneWest Yorkshire | 34.1% | 14,070 |
| WednesburyEngland | 36.4% | 8,335 |
| Chingford (London)England | 36.5% | 13,235 |
| GatesheadNorth East | 37.4% | 8,109 |
| Leicester (Cannock Street)England | 37.7% | 11,638 |
| Glasgow (Shieldhall)Alba / Scotland | 37.7% | 6,792 |
| Belvedere (London)England | 38.3% | 4,337 |
| Speke (Liverpool)England | 38.6% | 6,986 |
| StirlingAlba / Scotland | 38.7% | 4,111 |
Full table: the 50 hardest centres.
How long you will wait, by region
Pass rate is only half the decision. The other half is whether you can get a slot at all, and that varies far more sharply by region than pass rates do. The figures below are DVSA’s own published median wait between booking a car test and taking it, which is the measure that describes what most learners actually experience.
Half of car tests taken that month were booked within 11.1 weeks of the test date, and half waited longer. DVSA also publishes an older measure, the weeks until 10 percent of the booking window is free, which currently reads 20.2 weeks. The median is the one to plan around.
| Region | Median wait | Window free |
|---|---|---|
| Scotland | 15.6 wk | 7.2% |
| London | 14.7 wk | 4.6% |
| North West | 12.7 wk | 9.9% |
| East of England | 11.7 wk | 4.8% |
| North East | 11.7 wk | 15.5% |
| West Midlands | 11.1 wk | 5.6% |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 10.1 wk | 21.9% |
| East Midlands | 10 wk | 5.5% |
| South East | 10 wk | 9.8% |
| South West | 8.1 wk | 22.3% |
| Wales | 7.6 wk | 36.9% |
The spread is the point. Scotland currently sits at 15.6 weeks while Wales sits at 7.6, a gap of 8 weeks between two parts of the same country. If you are close to a regional boundary, that gap is often worth more to you than a few percentage points of pass rate. The last column is the share of the 24-week booking window still showing free slots, which is a rough guide to how much room a cancellation hunt has to work with.
Source: DVSA driving test waiting times, July 2026. Published statistical data set. Full breakdown on our waiting times page.
Choosing between two centres near you
This is the decision the map is actually for, and it is worth being honest about how little the headline number should decide on its own. Once two centres are both realistically reachable, the pass-rate gap between them is usually smaller than the gap your own preparation makes.
A useful order to think in:
- Can you practise there? If you can take lessons on the roads around a centre, that counts for more than anything else on this page. Driving an unfamiliar area cold is one of the most common causes of avoidable faults, and it cancels out a several-point pass-rate advantage very easily.
- Check the volume, not just the rate. Two centres showing the same percentage are not equally certain. One running four thousand tests a period has a figure you can lean on; one running three hundred does not. The centre panel on the map shows both numbers together for exactly this reason.
- Compare the wait. A centre four points better on paper is a poor trade if it books eight weeks further out and you are ready now. Waiting longer than you need to is its own risk: skills fade, and a long gap between finishing lessons and testing shows up on the day.
- Look at what the routes involve. Open the two centre pages side by side and read the fault patterns. A centre where junctions and observation dominate is telling you what to rehearse, which is more actionable than its rank.
- Only then use the ranking as a tiebreak. When two centres are genuinely equal on access, wait and familiarity, take the higher rate. That is the right weight to give it, and no more.
One thing worth saying plainly: travelling a long way to a centre solely because it has a high published rate is usually a bad trade. The rate is high in part because the local candidates know those roads. You would arrive without that advantage, and you would carry the travel and the unfamiliarity on top of it. If you do travel, budget for two or three lessons on the local roads first, or the reason you travelled disappears.
If you would rather have this worked out for you, the best centre for me tool takes a postcode and weighs rate, wait and distance together, and the pass rate finder simply ranks the nearest centres so you can see the shortlist the map is showing you.
Questions about the map
Why do two centres a few miles apart have such different pass rates?
Because the roads around them differ, not because the marking does. A centre whose routes include multi-lane gyratories, bus lanes and heavy town-centre traffic will fail more candidates than one whose routes are mostly two-lane roads and simple junctions, even when both sets of candidates are equally well prepared. Catchment matters too: centres serving dense urban populations see a different mix of candidates and instructors than rural ones do. DVSA examiners work to a single national standard that is quality-assured centrally, so the variation you see on the map comes from the driving, not the examining.
Does the map show waiting times as well as pass rates?
Yes. Open any centre and the panel shows its typical wait alongside the pass rate and test volume. Where DVSA publishes an official median wait for that centre we use it; where it does not, the figure is a clearly labelled estimate. The regional medians in the table above come from the same official release, currently July 2026, and the Great Britain median is 11.1 weeks.
Why is a centre on the map but missing from the rankings?
Because it has not run enough tests in the current period to rank reliably. A centre needs at least 1,000 tests in the period (2024-25) to appear in the easiest and hardest tables. Below that, the margin of error on the percentage is wider than the gaps the ranking is trying to describe, so a place in the table would be close to noise. Those centres stay on the map and keep their own page, with their volume shown, because the number is still the best available record of what happens there.
Do the colours mean a centre is easy or hard for me?
No. The colour bands describe what happened to everyone who tested there: green is 55 percent or more passing, amber is 45 to 54, red is below 45, against a national average near 49 percent. That is a property of the place. Your own chance is driven by how ready you are, how well you know the local roads, and the route you happen to draw on the day. Use the colour to understand what a centre demands, then prepare for it.
How often do the numbers behind the map change?
The pass-rate figures come from the DVSA statistical release for car practical tests, which is republished on a fixed schedule through the year, and the map picks up each new release along with the centre pages. The waiting-time figures are refreshed monthly from the separate DVSA waiting-times data set, which reports the previous month. Both sources are named at the foot of this page so you can check exactly which release a number came from.
Can I book a test from the map?
No, and nobody outside GOV.UK can. Bookings and changes go through the official DVSA booking service at gov.uk/book-driving-test, which is the only place a test can be arranged. The map covers the decision that comes first: which of the 654 centres you should be booking at, and what to expect when you get there.
You cannot book a practical test until you hold a theory pass, and it has to still be valid on the day you sit it. Nationally 44.8% of candidates pass the theory.
What to do at the scene, first aid basics and breakdown procedure. All 14 DVSA topics are free to practise, with no sign up. See the theory pass rate by centre or the full practice hub.
Sources: DVSA quarterly statistical release, 2024-25; DVSA driving test waiting times, July 2026