UK driving test pass rates: the centre you choose can change everything

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) publishes pass rate data for every practical driving test centre in Great Britain, updated monthly. The figures on this page are drawn from the annual 2024-25 dataset (reference DRT122A), covering 1.84 million car driving tests taken between April 2024 and March 2025.

The rankings below include only centres that conducted at least 1,000 tests during the year. Small rural centres can show high rates based on a few hundred tests, which makes direct comparison misleading. Filtering to 1,000-plus tests gives a more useful picture of where most learners actually sit their test. Northern Ireland is administered separately by the DVA and is not included in the DVSA dataset.

The ten highest-performing centres with 1,000 or more annual tests are all outside major cities. Dorchester in Dorset leads the table at 66.7% - almost double the national average and 33 percentage points above Wolverhampton at the other end.

The pattern is consistent across the top ten: market towns and smaller coastal or rural areas where traffic complexity is lower. Chichester, Kendal, Melton Mowbray, and Bangor all sit above 64%. Welsh centres appear three times in the top ten - Bangor, Newtown, and Barry all benefit from lower traffic volumes on their test routes.

For context, the very smallest rural centres in Scotland show even higher rates. Arbroath (78.9%), Gairloch (75.9%), and Inveraray (74.1%) each exceed 74% - but with far fewer than 1,000 annual tests, their routes reflect a different environment entirely and they are not included in the ranked chart below.

Pass rate differences between centres reflect the complexity of the test route, not the quality of the examiner. The DVSA uses standardised assessment criteria at every centre - what changes is the roads used.

Rural and market town routes typically involve A and B roads with light traffic, straightforward junctions, and few multi-lane roundabouts. Urban routes in cities like Wolverhampton, Birmingham, or London require candidates to navigate heavy traffic, bus lanes, complex junctions, and frequent interactions with pedestrians and cyclists. These are genuinely harder driving conditions to manage under examination pressure.

This is also why a high pass rate alone is not a reason to travel a long distance to sit a test at a different centre. A learner who trains in a city environment and then drives a quiet rural test route may struggle with the unfamiliar roads. The more useful takeaway is to understand what type of route your local centre uses, prepare specifically for those conditions, and set expectations accordingly.

Passing your test opens up a new set of decisions, and insurance is the most immediate. As a newly qualified driver you may not yet own a car, or you may want to continue using a parent's or relative's vehicle while you look for your first car. Both are common situations.

Learner driver insurance on a parent's car covers the supervised practice period before you pass. Once you have passed, car insurance after passing your driving test covers what to look for in your first policy, why new driver premiums are higher, and how a telematics policy can reduce the initial cost.