GCSE trends: what this year’s results tell us

– Big languages flounder

Foreign languages have not been compulsory as a GCSE for almost two decades. During that time, their popularity has collapsed – and the trend has continued this year.

GCSE French had 129,419 entries in 2022 – down 2% on last year, a decrease of 16% on 10 years ago and a huge fall of 62% from 2002.

It is a similar story for German, which had 36,327 entries this year – down 5% from last year, a 37% decrease from 2012 and a massive 71% drop since 2002.

Spanish had risen in popularity in recent years, but it too recorded a fall in 2022, with 112,845 entries, down 2% from 2021.

Spanish is already the most popular foreign language at A-level. In a few years’ time – should its numbers start to grow again – it might also be the most popular at GCSE.

– Small languages flourish

It is not all bad news for languages, however.

The number of entries for subjects classed as “other modern languages” jumped sharply this year by 47%, after dipping in both 2020 and 2021.

There were a total of 36,445 entries across the 15 languages that make up this category, the highest number on record and – perhaps symbolically – more than the 36,327 entries for German.

Within the group, the most popular choices were Polish (6,003 entries), Chinese (5,504), Arabic (4,931) and Italian (4,897).

– Home economics has the biggest gender imbalance

GCSE home economics was formally dropped from the syllabus several years ago, but just over 2,000 candidates took the subject in 2022, of whom 98% were girls – the biggest gender imbalance of any subject, as was the case in 2021.

Other subjects where girls accounted for the vast majority of entries this year included performing/expressive arts (95%), health and social care (94%) and social sciences (70%).

Boys made up the most entries in construction (90%), engineering (83%) and computing (79%), as well as the small category called “other technology subjects” (95%).

– Music sounds a sour note

The long-term decline of GCSE music looks to have resumed, after a brief respite in 2020 and 2021 when entries rose slightly.

This year the subject had 37,705 entries – down 4% on last year and a fall of 19% from 10 years ago.

Drama is also continuing to decline, with 57,308 entries this year – down 6% on 2021 and a drop of 25% since 2012.

Completing a bleak picture for the creative industries, the subject of performing arts had just 8,200 entries this year – down 6% from last year and a fall of 61% in the past decade.

– Computing overtakes PE

In what feels like it ought to be a symbolic moment, for the first time the number of entries for GCSE computing (81,120) outnumbered those for PE (79,924).

Computing was first assessed as a GCSE subject in 2014 and since then the popularity of sitting in front of a keyboard, rather than running and jumping about, has increased steadily.

Entries for computing stood at just 16,773 in 2014. There were almost five times this number in 2022.

– Business is booming

The recent growth in GCSE business studies shows no sign of faltering. There were 107,283 entries this year – up 5% from last year and an increase of 52% from a decade ago.

The subject is currently the 14th most popular choice at GCSE but is likely to move up the rankings in the next few years, particular if French (currently 12th) and Spanish (13th) continue to fall or level off.

It won’t be long before business studies is back to the level of popularity it enjoyed in the early Noughties, when it had 125,605 entries in 2003.

– The decade’s winners and losers

Ten years ago, some 12.7% of GCSE entries – around one in eight – were for humanities subjects, such as geography, history and religious studies.

This year the figure stood at 14.4%, or around one in seven.

Over the same period, the proportion of entries accounted for by the performing arts and media has dropped from 3.9% to 2.4%.

Art, design and technology have also taken a hit, with these subjects accounting for 8.1% of entries in 2012 and 5.1% in 2022.

But science has held steady, accounting for just over a quarter of all entries in both 2012 and 2022.

Computing subjects have increased slightly, from 1.0% to 1.6%.