The single board that examines it, the 9ST0 specification, and what the 2026 results show.
Book a Free ConsultationA-Level Statistics is a standalone A-level examined by a single awarding body in England and Wales: Pearson Edexcel, under the qualification code 9ST0. First taught from September 2017, it is assessed entirely by three externally-examined papers, with no coursework and no other current A-level route into the subject.
Pearson Edexcel publishes A level Statistics (9ST0). AQA's own mathematics subject list, OCR's own complete AS/A Level list, WJEC's own AS/A Level list and Eduqas's own AS/A Level list carry no entry for Statistics, each checked directly against the board's own site on 7 September 2026.
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppPearson's own qualification page confirms A level Statistics (2017) is current: "Teaching from: September 2017 External assessment from: 2019", with specification and support materials published and maintained. That page sits at the top of the organic results for the qualification's own name and is the fastest way to confirm the route is still open.
OCR's website does not answer a guessed qualification URL the way AQA's and Pearson's do. A fabricated Statistics URL, built the way a real OCR qualification address is structured, returns the same generic "Qualification details" page and navigation shell that a genuine subject page would show, rather than an error. Because a response like that from a guessed OCR URL proves nothing, OCR's absence here is drawn instead from OCR's own complete, alphabetical AS and A Level qualifications list, which runs from Ancient History to Sociology with no Statistics entry anywhere in it.
AQA's own mathematics subject list is equally direct: it names GCSE Statistics (8382), AS and A-level Mathematics (7356/7357) and AS and A-level Further Mathematics (7366/7367), and nothing else. AQA did once offer a standalone A-level in Statistics, specification 6380 — referenced as a "legacy" specification in Pearson's own mapping documents, which set out where the two specifications differ — but AQA's current list carries no Statistics qualification of any kind, so that route no longer exists on AQA's own site either.
Neither WJEC nor Eduqas offer it. WJEC's own AS/A Level list is alphabetical and runs straight from Sociology to Spanish, then on to Welsh Language, with nothing between them — there is no Statistics entry anywhere on it, though Mathematics is on the list. Eduqas, WJEC's sister board for England, publishes a separate AS/A Level list with no Mathematics qualification at all, let alone Statistics; its list also ends at Sociology and Spanish, the same alphabetical point WJEC's does, with nothing further down it either.
Four boards, four separate checks, and one qualification standing: Pearson Edexcel's A level Statistics (9ST0) is the only current route into standalone A-level Statistics in England or Wales.
The specification itself is unambiguous about what it is and which edition a reader should be checking against — a real distinction, since specifications are revised. It opens: "Specification Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Statistics (9ST0) First teaching from September 2017 First certification from 2019 Issue 2", and the document's own running footer dates that edition precisely: "Specification – Issue 2 – January 2024". The qualification also carries the Ofqual Regulated Qualifications Framework number 603/2260/3.
Assessment is entirely by examination. Three papers — Data and Probability (9ST0/01), Statistical Inference (9ST0/02) and Statistics in Practice (9ST0/03) — are each two hours long, worth 80 marks and 33⅓% of the qualification, and all three are sat in a single May/June series; there is no non-exam assessment and nothing is banked from an earlier sitting. Grading runs on a six-grade scale from A* to E, calculated on the total mark across all three papers rather than paper by paper — individual papers are not separately graded.
The specification was written to meet Ofqual's GCE Qualification Level Conditions and its GCE Subject Level Conditions and Requirements for Statistics, published in May 2016, and Pearson's own document notes that its mapping materials set out the differences between 9ST0 and AQA's discontinued Statistics specification, 6380. There is no formal prior-learning requirement: the specification states there are "no prior learning or other requirements" for the qualification, though it builds on the statistics and probability content of GCSE Mathematics, and students who benefit most typically already hold a GCSE in Mathematics or in Statistics.
The confusion is easy to have, because A-Level Maths already contains a statistics component, and one well-ranking page for this search is a set of legacy "Statistics 1" revision notes for the modular A-level Maths syllabus that existed before 2017 — not for the standalone qualification this page is about. The two are not the same course, and they are not sized the same either.
On AQA's current A-Level Mathematics specification, 7357, the statistics content sits inside a single paper. Paper 3 covers "Any content from Paper 1 and content from: K: Statistical sampling L: Data presentation and interpretation M: Probability N: Statistical distributions O: Statistical hypothesis testing", assessed as a two-hour, 100-mark paper worth 33⅓% of the A-level — the same weighting a whole standalone A-Level Statistics paper carries on its own. A-Level Statistics gives three papers entirely to statistical content; AQA's A-Level Maths gives one.
AQA's arrangement is one of several, and it is the only one this page checks directly against the board's own specification. Pearson Edexcel, OCR A, OCR B (MEI) and WJEC all split their A-level Maths statistics content differently again, paper by paper. Our A-Level Maths guide carries the full board-by-board table of where each specification places it; there is no reason to rebuild that table here.
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppThe most direct measure of how small this qualification is comes from JCQ's own subject-by-subject results table, not from a competitor's summary of it. In the summer 2026 series, JCQ recorded 1,140 UK entries for A-Level Statistics — all ages, male and female — against 115,380 for A-Level Mathematics in the same table. Statistics is a small fraction of the size of Maths by entries, in the same JCQ series, on the same page of results.
| Measure (UK, all ages, summer 2026) (JCQ) | A-Level Statistics | A-Level Mathematics |
|---|---|---|
| Entries | 1,140 | 115,380 |
| Awarded A* | 1.6% | 17.7% |
| Awarded A*–A | 12.5% | 42.5% |
| Awarded A*–B | 33.9% | 62.1% |
| Awarded A*–E | 92.7% | 96.4% |
Source: JCQ, A level by subject, age, sex and country, 2026 (Table 1), retrieved 7 September 2026.
Every one of those gaps is at least partly a cohort effect rather than a pure difficulty effect: a subject with 1,140 UK entries is being chosen by a far more self-selected group than one with 115,380, and the students choosing a smaller, less conventional A-level are disproportionately those already confident with numbers. The overall pass rates sit closer together than the top grades do: 92.7% against 96.4%, in the same series — the gap opens at A* and A*-A, where a small, self-selecting cohort explains only part of the difference.
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppPearson's specification is explicit about who the qualification is aimed at: a student "seeking to pursue the study of a numerate post-16 subject but not wishing to study pure mathematics". It names subjects it sits well alongside — Biology, Psychology, Geography, Business Studies and Economics — and says it provides "a foundation in statistics for students seeking to undertake higher education in social sciences, biological sciences or medicine and related health studies", without requiring the pure mathematics content a Further Maths route would.
There is no grade requirement written into the specification itself — Pearson sets none — but the document does say who tends to benefit most: students who already hold a GCSE in Mathematics or in Statistics, because the course builds on the statistics and probability content already inside GCSE Maths. A school or college is free to set its own entry requirement on top of that, and does not have to publish one.
For the entry and grade-boundary detail that sits alongside GCSE Statistics on one page, our Statistics tutor page covers both qualifications together. This page's job is narrower and earlier: establishing that Pearson Edexcel 9ST0 is the route that exists at all, and what its three papers actually examine, before a family compares tutors or exam boards. The wider A-Level tuition hub lists the other subjects we cover at this level, including A-Level Maths for a family still deciding between the two routes.
Every figure on this page comes from the qualification's own specification, JCQ's published results tables, or the awarding bodies' own qualification lists, checked directly rather than taken from a secondary summary. Primary sources: Pearson Edexcel's A level Statistics specification, Pearson's qualification page, AQA's mathematics subject list, AQA's A-Level Mathematics (7357) assessment breakdown, OCR's AS and A Level qualifications list, WJEC's AS/A Level qualifications list, Eduqas's AS/A Level qualifications list and JCQ's 2026 subject results table. Checked 7 September 2026.
Yes. Pearson's own qualification page confirms A level Statistics (2017) is current, teaching from September 2017 with first certification from 2019, on a specification now at Issue 2, dated January 2024 in its own footer. No other English or Welsh exam board publishes a standalone A-level in Statistics: AQA's own mathematics subject list, OCR's own complete AS/A Level list, and WJEC's and Eduqas's own AS/A Level lists all carry no entry for it, each checked directly against the board's own site on 7 September 2026. AQA did once offer one, specification 6380, referenced as a legacy specification in Pearson's own mapping documents.
Pearson Edexcel, under the qualification code 9ST0 and the Ofqual Regulated Qualifications Framework number 603/2260/3. It is assessed by three externally-examined papers -- Data and Probability, Statistical Inference and Statistics in Practice -- each two hours long and worth 80 marks, all sat in a single May/June series with no coursework or non-exam assessment. Grading runs on a six-grade scale from A* to E, calculated on the combined mark across all three papers rather than paper by paper.
The published grades look harder: in JCQ's summer 2026 results, 12.5% of A-Level Statistics entries were awarded A*-A against 42.5% for A-Level Mathematics, in the same table. Some of that gap is genuine difficulty and some is cohort size -- Statistics drew 1,140 UK entries against 115,380 for Maths, so a far smaller, more self-selected group sits it. Overall pass rates are close: 92.7% against 96.4%.
Yes. Pearson's specification sets no prior-learning requirement and does not name A-Level Maths, or even GCSE Maths, as compulsory. It does say the course builds on the statistics and probability content already inside GCSE Mathematics, and that students who benefit most typically already hold a GCSE in Mathematics or in Statistics -- but that is guidance, not a rule, and a school or college may set its own entry requirement on top of it.
No. The specification is assessed entirely by three written examinations -- Data and Probability, Statistical Inference and Statistics in Practice -- with no non-exam assessment and no coursework component anywhere in the qualification. All three papers are sat in a single May/June series, and grading runs on a six-grade scale from A* to E calculated across the combined marks of all three.
Pearson does not set one. The specification states there are no prior learning or other requirements for the qualification, though it builds on the statistics and probability components of GCSE Mathematics, and that students likely to benefit most hold a GCSE in Mathematics or in Statistics. Individual schools and colleges set their own entry requirements for sixth-form subjects, and Pearson's specification does not publish or recommend a specific grade.
Our expert A-Level Statistics tutors work from the same three Pearson Edexcel papers your exam sets -- Data and Probability, Statistical Inference and Statistics in Practice -- building sessions around whichever paper is exposing the weakest topic, rather than a generic statistics course built for a different specification. Rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 58 reviews. Book a free consultation or message us on WhatsApp.
Checked 7 September 2026: the qualification code, specification issue, paper structure, marks, weightings and JCQ results on this page were verified against Pearson Edexcel, AQA, OCR, WJEC, Eduqas and JCQ directly.
Rated 4.8/5 on Trustpilot. Our expert A-Level Statistics tutors work from the Pearson Edexcel 9ST0 papers — see also A-Level Maths and our Statistics tutor page.
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