The published GCSE grade distribution for Arabic, nationally and board by board, 2022 to 2026. Official figures, shown as they were published: a distribution, not a difficulty rating.
5,169
entries · 2026
29.6%
Grade 9
57.9%
7+
77.8%
5+ (strong pass)
Edexcel — the only board publishing this subject · 2026
Every bar below is Edexcel, the only board publishing this subject. 2022 grades were the assessed-grades peak, and the reset since is visible in the shape of each year.
Edexcel — the only board publishing this subject
987654321U
20227+ 60.1% · 4,948 entries
30.217.112.89129.3
20237+ 59.2% · 5,173 entries
31.815.212.28.811
20247+ 59.5% · 5,256 entries
2917.113.411.1
20257+ 58.5% · 5,325 entries
29.216.113.28.811
20267+ 57.9% · 5,169 entries
29.615.712.612
Movement · ranked on 7+
Arabic has climbed 1 place, from #9 to #8.
Position among the 39 subjects Edexcel published in every year from 2022 to 2026. Subjects that appear in only some years are left out, so the field is the same size each time and a change of place is a change in the subject rather than a change in the table. A subject sits differently on each measure, so the ranking is only ever a ranking of that one thing. The block beside each measure is the whole grade scale, in the colours used at the top of this page, with the grades that measure counts filled in.
Turkish
#6Japanese67.9%
#8Greek (Modern)66.8%
#5Italian69.0%
#9Arabic60.1%
#7Portuguese67.9%
#12Gujarati52.8%
#11Music52.9%
Urdu
Persian
Chemistry
#13Biology51.8%
#10Biblical Hebrew57.2%
Physics
Astronomy
Art and Design: Fine Art
Art and Design: Textile Design
German
English Literature
Art and Design: Graphic Communication
Art and Design: Photography
2022
The 9 subjects shown span 17.2 percentage points in 2022.
Every subject, every year · #1 is the highest 7+
Entries · who is growing
Arabic is growing, but more slowly than Edexcel’s entries as a whole.
4,948 entries in 2022, 5,169 in 2026 — a change of +4.5%, against +12% across all 39 subjects Edexcel published in every year from 2022 to 2026. This is what students chose, not how they were graded.
Every subject starts level at its 2022 size, so the bars show growth and decline rather than which subject is biggest. Boards that publish no entry counts are left out.
#1Arabic+0.0%
#2Art and Design: Art, Craft and Design+0.0%
#3Art and Design: Fine Art+0.0%
#4Art and Design: Graphic Communication+0.0%
#5Art and Design: Photography+0.0%
#6Art and Design: Textile Design+0.0%
#7Art and Design: Three-Dimensional Design+0.0%
#8Astronomy+0.0%
#9Biblical Hebrew+0.0%
Urdu
Spanish
Greek (Modern)
Mathematics
Physical Education
Religious Studies
Citizenship Studies
Gujarati
Psychology
French
German
Turkish
2022
Ranked by growth since 2022, so #1 is the fastest-growing subject rather than the largest. In 2022 the 9 shown run from +0.0% to +0.0%.
Every subject, every year · dashed line = all subjects together
Board by board · 2026
One board publishes Arabic.
With a single board there is no cross-board comparison to draw; the figures below are the complete published picture.
Grade distributions reflect who enters a subject as much as the exam itself, so nothing on this page is a difficulty ranking. Figures are published cumulative percentages from JCQ and the awarding bodies; per-grade shares are derived by subtracting adjacent bands. How the data is sourced and worked out.