Manchester is officially the most intelligent place in the UK, according to new research

Greater Manchester is officially the most intelligent place in the country… Well, according to new research, it is.

International education providers Oxford Summer School delved into 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.

And low and behold, our region came out on top, with 48% percent more students achieving the top GCSE grade of 9 in core subjects Maths, English Language and Literature, Chemistry, Biology, and Physics.

Greater Manchester also has over 200% more students attaining Grade 9s on average than Kent, the region where students achieve the fewest Grade 9s.

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Coming in second place is Tyne and Wear, with 45% more students achieving a Grade 9 in the core subjects than the average for all regions surveyed.

The region also has 214% more students attaining a Grade 9 in Maths, Science and English Language and Literature than Kent (sorry, Kent).

And showing that university doesn’t mean everything is Cambridgeshire, who came in at third place – though it was noted that this region is the most intelligent place for mathematics, with more students achieving a Grade 9 in the subject than anywhere else in the UK.

Buckinghamshire also ranked handsomely, with 42% more of its students attaining Grade 9s in core subjects than the average for all regions surveyed.

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However, making up the bottom of the pile is Shropshire, which has only 70% more students attaining a Grade 9 in English Language and Literature than the UK average.

Places such as Merseyside, Suffolk and Surrey also rank poorly, with students achieving just 33%, 25% and 20% fewer Grade 9s at GCSE than the national average.

And, as mentioned a couple of times in this article, Kent is the area where students achieve the lowest percentage of Grade 9s in the key GCSE subjects of Maths, Science and English Language – 53% less than the average for all regions.

Read more about the study here.