The Rise and Rise of A Level Economics

Lots of coverage in the media over the last few days following the publication of A Level results for Summer 2013 and much of it has focused on the increasing take-up of so-called "harder" A Level subjects.

Economics has been singled out for particular attention, even meriting a special article in the FT! However, as we've noted before on the Economics blog, the strong growth in candidate numbers for A Level Economics is nothing new. The subject has been on the rise for 7-8 years now. However that growth has accelerated in the last year or two and in 2013 Economics was the fastest growing A Level option.

The charts below provide a little more data to illustrate the growth of A Level Economics. Essentially 30,000 more students take AS/A2 Economics now than they did seven years ago. If the current growth rate is sustained into 2014, then Economics candidates will pass 70,000 in June 2014 and will overtake A Level Business Studies (which is currently on 70,000 and in steady decline of 1-2% per year).

I have also provide details of Exam Board market shares for A Level Economics and the proportion of top grades (A* or A grade) offered this summer by the three main boards. AQA and Edexcel have been the main beneficiaries of the growth in candidate numbers, with OCR steadily losing market share. Edexcel, in turn has been taking market share from both AQA and OCR.

Interestingly, Edexcel awarded almost 40% of candidates an A* or A grade in summer 2013, significantly higher than AQA or OCR.