Gender

Historically, girls have outperformed boys across all education phases. However, there is significant variation in the size of the gender gap by subject, as well as by phase, and how these gender gaps change over time.  

The gender attainment gap follows a distinctive pattern compared with other attainment gaps examined in this report. While most gaps emerge and then widen as pupils move through the education system, the gender gap between girls and boys narrows over the course of primary school and then widens again during secondary education. 

The progress that boys have made in recent years means the overall gender attainment gap has been wiped out at key stage 2 and fallen to such an extent at GCSE that it almost matches the early years  gender gap. 

While girls continue to outperform boys across the headline measure of attainment, this masks that gender differences are consistently smaller in mathematics than in literacy and by the end of primary school boys now outperform girls in maths having trailed them pre-pandemic.  

Figure G1: The gender gap in favour of girls narrowed in 2025 at all key stages, with girls’ attainment plateauing at key stage 2 and declining at key stage 4, in contrast to rising attainment among boys 

 


 

Early years foundation stage 

While the gender gap among five-year-olds is narrower than the disadvantage gap, attainment between boys and girls at this early stage remains substantial. Before the pandemic, the gender gap had been closing steadily, narrowing by more than a month from 2013 to 2019, when girls were 2.9 months ahead of boys.  

By 2024, the gender gap had widened to 3.3 months, which was 0.4 months above its pre-pandemic level and similar to the level last seen in 2016. By 2025, it had narrowed slightly to 3.2 months, broadly in line again with the gender differences recorded since the pandemic.  

Primary school 

As pupils advance through primary school, the gender gap gradually narrows. This is because, while boys trail girls across all early learning goals at age 5, by age 11 they have surpassed girls in maths. 

On our headline measure (averaged across reading and maths) the gender gap at key stage 2 has been on a downward trend since the pandemic. Having peaked at 2.4 months in 2019, the gender gap fell to 1.0 month in 2024 and had essentially closed by 2025.  

Official statistics show a similar pattern: boys have pulled further ahead in maths and are catching up with girls in reading, particularly at the higher level. That said, using the official headline measure, which combines reading, writing and maths, girls remain 8 percentage points ahead of boys overall – a substantial gender gap, albeit smaller than before the pandemic. 

Secondary school 

As at key stage 2, the GCSE gender gap has been on a long-term downward trend. The gap (averaged across GCSE English and maths) peaked at 6.7 months in 2017. By 2025, it had halved to 3.4 months, its lowest on record and over a month smaller than in 2024.    

The official data shows that girls continue to outperform boys on all headline attainment measures, but these gender gaps have all narrowed in 2025. This reflects rising attainment among boys alongside slightly declining attainment among girls.  

This trend is mirrored in average Attainment 8 (A8) scores – a measure of a pupil’s average performance across eight key GCSE subjects. Between 2024 and 2025, boys’ average scores rose, while girls’ scores saw a slight decline. Consequently, the gender gap has reached its narrowest since the start of the series in 2019. Girls’ A8 attainment has reached its lowest level since the measure was first introduced, while boys’ attainment has now risen just above 2019 levels.  

Figure G2: Girls’ A8 attainment has slightly declined while boys’ has improved causing the A8 gender gap to reach its narrowest since the start of the series in 2019 

 


16-19 education 

In 16-19 education, female students achieved around 1.5 grades higher than male students in 2025 across their best three qualifications. This gender gap is similar to that seen in recent years, though slightly narrower than just before the pandemic in 2019, when it stood at 1.7 grades. The narrowing reflects rising attainment for both genders since 2019, with marginally faster improvement among male students. More recently, however, attainment has remained largely stable for both male and female students. 

Figure G3: The 16-19 gender gap is similar to last year, and slightly narrower than the gap pre-pandemic

 


 

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