Bucks among the cleverest areas in England, new figures show

Bucks has been found to be one of the smartest areas in the country, according to new data.

A breakdown of recent GCSE grades shows that Bucks is one of the areas where the highest portion of students achieve top grades.

In Bucks, 16.9% of students achieve the top GCSE grade of nine in the core subjects of Maths, English Literature, Chemistry, Biology, and Physics, the UK average is 11.8%.

In comparison, Kent – the area where students achieve the fewest top grades – has just 5.5% of students who achieve Grade nines at GCSE.

The research, by international education providers Oxford Summer School, analysed new data from the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) to discover which areas in the UK achieved the highest average results for core GCSE subjects in 2021.

A number of Bucks students excelled when it came to science, 23.5% achieved a Grade nine in Biology, 23.4% in Chemistry and 22.2% in Physics.

Overall, 8.6% of students in Bucks got top marks for maths, only 6.6% managed that grade in English Literature.

Beating Bucks, Greater Manchester is the most intelligent area in the UK, with 17.9% of students achieving a Grade nine in the core subjects in their GCSEs.

Cambridgeshire is the second smartest region in the UK, with 17.2% of students achieving a Grade nine in GCSE Maths, Science and English Literature, compared to the national average of 11.8%.

Furthermore, Cambridgeshire is the UK’s most talented area for Maths, with more students achieving a Grade nine in the subject than anywhere else in the UK.

While Shropshire does not make the list of top 15 most intelligent places, the county is the most successful when it comes to studying English Literature, with 9.1% of students attaining a Grade 9 at GCSE – higher than anywhere else in the country.

At the other end of the scale, Kent is the area where students achieve the lowest percentage of Grade 9s in the key GCSE subjects of Maths, Science and English Language. In Kent, just 5.5% of students achieved Grade 9 in their core subjects.

Places such as Merseyside, Suffolk and Surrey also ranked low on the list.

In Merseyside, 7.9% of students received top GCSE grades, followed by 8.9% in Suffolk and 9.5% in Surrey – well below the UK average of 11.8%.