A new analysis by the Campaign for the Arts shows that arts subjects accounted for just 10 per cent of all A-level entries in 2026. It is the lowest proportion on record, and the sharpest annual decline since 2021. The figures come at a difficult time for the government, which has pledged to strengthen creative education. So far, however, there is little sign of that ambition making its way into the classroom, at least judging by the latest entry figures.
Overall A-level entries climbed 2.7 per cent this year, crossing 900,000 for the first time. Arts entries moved in the opposite direction, dropping 1.8 per cent to 90,985, a total that sits within nine entries of the record low set in 2021. Taken together, these trends mean the arts’ share of A-levels has now contracted by more than a third since 2010. Where roughly one in six and a half students once took an arts A-level, the figure today is closer to one in ten.
The subjects already struggling most took the hardest hits this year. Drama’s share of entries fell by 10 per cent, the sharpest annual decline recorded in sixteen years of data, leaving it at just 0.8 per cent of all entries and down 58 per cent since 2010, with only 7,397 students now taking it. Music fared little better, its share falling 8 per cent to a record low of 0.6 per cent, more than halving since 2010 and now counting just 5,106 entries nationally. Media, Film and TV Studies has lost 36 per cent of its 2010 share, while Art & Design, still comfortably the most popular arts subject, slipped to its lowest-ever share at 4.7 per cent.
Some subjects, including Performing and Expressive Arts, Design and Technology, and Dance, saw entries increase this year. But because overall A level entries also rose, the gains are less straightforward. Performing and Expressive Arts was the only one to increase its share of the total, while Design and Technology held steady. Dance also attracted more students, but its overall share still fell.
GCSE figures tell a slightly different story. The arts’ share there has also fallen sharply since 2010, nearly halving, but that decline has largely levelled off since 2023, creating a growing gap between a GCSE picture that has stabilised and an A-level picture still sliding.
A study from Cambridge University points to one likely cause: pupils grow less interested in creative subjects the further they progress through secondary school. Many students told researchers they had been actively discouraged from pursuing the arts by teachers and parents alike, often warned that creative careers were too precarious to bank on. The same research found that a student’s economic background influenced whether they chose to study the arts at all, and that this influence was notably stronger among girls than among boys.
Jack Gamble, the director of the Campaign for the Arts, argued the figures underline the need for the government to follow through on its stated ambitions. He pointed to its pledge to revitalise arts education. He said meaningful change would require curriculum reform, more specialist teachers, and sustained funding, warning that without deliberate intervention, creative opportunities for young people will continue to narrow year after year.
In a 2024 report by the Campaign for the Arts and the University of Warwick, funding pressures and school accountability measures, including the EBacc and Progress 8, as important factors in the decline of arts subjects in state schools. The current Labour government has promised to scrap the EBacc and overhaul Progress 8, with the findings of its consultation on the proposed changes expected shortly.