Most popular A-level subject with 112,138 entries revealed

Independent

18 hours ago

In 2025, more young people than ever have opened their A-level results to find out how they did in their maths exam. Once again, maths has been the most popular A-level subject, with 112,138 entries in 2025.
This is up by more than 4% compared with 2024. Entries in further maths, an A-level that expands on the maths curriculum, have also risen – an increase of 7% since 2024, with over 19,000 entries this year.
As a professional mathematician, this is pleasing news. Some of these students will be happily receiving confirmation of their place to study maths at university.
The joy I experienced when I discovered in my maths degree that many of the subjects I studied at school – chemistry, biology, physics and even music – are woven together by a mathematical fabric, is something I've never forgotten.
I'm excited by the idea that many young people are about to experience this for themselves. But I am concerned that fewer students will have the same opportunities in the future, as more maths departments are forced to downsize or close, and as we become more reliant on artificial intelligence.
There are a number of differences between studying maths at university compared with school. While this can be daunting at first, all of these differences underscore just how richly layered, deeply interconnected and vastly applicable maths is.
At university, not only do you learn beautiful formulas and powerful algorithms, but also grapple with why these formulas are true and dissect exactly what these algorithms are doing. This is the idea of the 'proof', which is not explored much at school and is something that can initially take students by surprise.
But proving why formulas are true and why algorithms work is an important and necessary step in being able discover new and exciting applications of the maths you're studying.
A maths degree can lead to careers in finance, data science, AI, cybersecurity, quantum computing, ecology and climate modelling. But more importantly, maths is a beautifully creative subject, one that allows people to be immensely expressive in their scientific and artistic ideas.
A recent and stunning example of this is Hannah Cairo, who at just 17 disproved a 40-year old conjecture.
If there is a message I wish I knew when I started studying university mathematics it is this: maths is not just something to learn, but something to create. I'm continually amazed at how my students find new ways to solve problems that I first encountered over 20 years ago.
Accessibility of maths degrees
But the question of going on to study maths at university is no longer just a matter of A-level grades. The recent and growing phenomenon of maths deserts – areas of the country where maths degrees are not offered – is making maths degrees less accessible, particularly for students outside of big cities.
Forthcoming research from The Campaign for Mathematical Sciences (CAMS), of which I am a supporter, shows that research-intensive, higher-tariff universities – the ones that require higher grades to get in – took 66% of UK maths undergraduates in 2024, up from 56% in 2006.
This puts smaller departments in lower-tariff universities in danger of closure as enrolments drop. The CAMS research forecasts that an additional nine maths departments will have fewer than 50 enrolments in their degrees by 2035.
This cycle will further concentrate maths degrees in high-tariff institutions, reinforcing stereotypes such as that only exceptionally gifted people should go on to study maths at university. This could also have severe consequences for teacher recruitment. The CAMS research also found that 25% of maths graduates from lower-tariff universities go into jobs in education, compared to 8% from higher tariff universities.
Maths in the age of AI
The growing capability and sophistication of AI is also putting pressure on maths departments.
With OpenAI's claim that their recently released GPT-5 is like having 'a team of PhD-level experts in your pocket', the temptation to overly rely on AI poses further risks to the existence and quality of future maths degrees.
But the process of turning knowledge into wisdom and theory into application comes from the act of doing: doing calculations and forming logical and rigorous arguments. That is the key constituent of thinking clearly and creatively. It ensures students have ownership of their skills, capacities, and the work that they produce.
A data scientist will still require an in-depth working knowledge of the mathematical, algorithmic and statistical theory underpinning data science if they are going to be effective. The same for financial analysts, engineers and computer scientists.
The distinguished mathematician and computer scientist Leslie Lamport said that 'coding is to programming what typing is to writing'. Just as you need to have some idea of what you are writing before you type it, you need to have some idea of the (mathematical) algorithm you are creating before you code it.
It is worth remembering that the early pioneers in AI – John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Claude Shannon, Alan Turing – all had degrees in mathematics. So we have every reason to expect that future breakthroughs in AI will come from people with mathematics degrees working creatively in interdisciplinary teams.
This is another great feature of maths: its versatility. It's a subject that doesn't just train you for a job but enables you to enjoy a rich and fulfilling career – one that can comprise many different jobs, in many different fields, over the course of a lifetime.