Driving Test Pass Rates By Age

Detailed in this section are the official Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) driving test pass rates by age. Dates range from the months April 2016 through to March 2017.

Statistics are a combination of male and female test candidates where tests are taken throughout all UK practical driving test centres.

In the table below, there is statistical data marked ‘unidentified’. Data is not obtained for statistical purposes for unidentified test candidates who have used a licence that has not been issued by the DVLA and their age is not known.

It is widely known that younger people tend to require fewer driving lessons and will often stand a better chance of passing the driving test on first attempt. As can be seen for a comparison by the table data below, those that are 17 years old have almost 10% greater chance of passing the test than that of an 25 year old.

Driving Test Pass Rates By Age

Statistics detail the age of the test candidate, the total amount of driving tests taken, the total amount of test passes and the pass rate for that age group.

Age	Conducted	Passes	Pass rate (%)
16	75	46	61.3
17	295,139	167,524	56.8
18	249,544	123,075	49.3
19	142,158	66,984	47.1
20	103,098	48,057	46.6
21	88,416	41,736	47.2
22	80,237	38,525	48.0
23	71,008	33,637	47.4
24	62,638	29,654	47.3
25	55,963	26,137	46.7
26	51,365	23,610	46.0
27	46,068	20,627	44.8
28	43,657	19,450	44.6
29	41,042	18,021	43.9
30	39,804	17,012	42.7
31	37,301	15,726	42.2
32	34,890	14,480	41.5
33	32,709	13,548	41.4
34	30,072	12,193	40.5
35	27,354	11,104	40.6
36	25,224	9,951	39.5
37	21,463	8,397	39.1
38	18,680	7,215	38.6
39	16,252	6,061	37.3
40	14,474	5,406	37.3
41	12,988	4,738	36.5
42	11,466	4,132	36.0
43	9,671	3,558	36.8
44	9,042	3,310	36.6
45	7,742	2,808	36.3
46	6,968	2,517	36.1
47	6,059	2,253	37.2
48	5,332	1,964	36.8
49	4,588	1,621	35.3
50	4,022	1,451	36.1
51	3,608	1,313	36.4
52	3,201	1,140	35.6
53	2,680	983	36.7
54	2,381	826	34.7
55	2,158	722	33.5
56	1,927	654	33.9
57	1,574	542	34.4
58	1,185	424	35.8
59	981	348	35.5
60	780	270	34.6
61+	3,945	1,415	35.9
Unidentified	7	3	42.9
Total	1,730,936	815,168	47.1

Male and Female Driving Test Pass Rates Based on Age

For specific male or female driving test pass rates based on age, see:

• Male driving test pass rates by age
• Female driving test pass rates by age