IBonomicsIB Grade Distribution by Subject
Latest data: May 2026Provisional
In May 2026, 5 was the most common grade in 14 of the 23 subjects with at least 100 students at HL, and 4 in 12 of the 30 at SL.
Grade distributions reflect the students taking each subject, how it is assessed and many other factors, so they don't show which subjects are easier.
Earlier May sessions are compared the same way. November sessions aren't: they are much smaller, and taken mostly in the southern hemisphere.
Grade distribution by subject at HL, May 2026
Grades 1 to 7 in the 23 subjects with at least 100 students at HL in May 2026, the subjects with the most 6s and 7s first. Each bar starts with grade 7. In the table, the darker a cell, the larger its share.
| Subject | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | N | 6 or 7 | Mean grade | Students |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Economics | 0.1 | 1.9 | 7.4 | 17.4 | 27.7 | 30.1 | 14.7 | 0.7 | 44.8 | 5.2 | 20,472 |
| Geography | 0.0 | 0.8 | 5.2 | 15.3 | 35.9 | 29.4 | 12.7 | 0.7 | 42.1 | 5.3 | 5,229 |
| Physics | 0.3 | 4.4 | 14.8 | 19.5 | 20.5 | 18.9 | 20.5 | 1.1 | 39.4 | 5.0 | 19,035 |
| Theatre | 0.1 | 1.4 | 8.9 | 17.4 | 30.4 | 26.4 | 12.8 | 2.6 | 39.2 | 5.1 | 2,381 |
| Chemistry | 0.5 | 3.4 | 14.0 | 19.9 | 22.2 | 23.8 | 15.1 | 1.1 | 38.9 | 4.9 | 20,748 |
| Mathematics: Analysis and Approaches | 0.5 | 4.2 | 10.7 | 20.3 | 24.3 | 22.1 | 16.8 | 1.2 | 38.9 | 5.0 | 26,591 |
| Global Politics | 0.2 | 1.5 | 4.7 | 22.4 | 34.2 | 29.3 | 6.1 | 1.6 | 35.4 | 5.0 | 6,894 |
| Computer Science | 0.5 | 4.8 | 14.9 | 19.0 | 25.2 | 23.5 | 10.9 | 1.3 | 34.4 | 4.8 | 4,536 |
| Social and Cultural Anthropology | 0.8 | 3.1 | 11.2 | 25.6 | 24.7 | 25.3 | 7.7 | 1.7 | 33.0 | 4.8 | 949 |
| Business Management | 0.1 | 1.5 | 8.3 | 21.7 | 35.1 | 25.7 | 6.6 | 1.0 | 32.3 | 5.0 | 26,520 |
| Psychology | 0.1 | 2.9 | 11.7 | 23.4 | 30.1 | 24.4 | 6.0 | 1.4 | 30.4 | 4.8 | 15,455 |
| Philosophy | 0.0 | 2.3 | 10.3 | 24.3 | 31.4 | 21.2 | 8.6 | 1.8 | 29.8 | 4.9 | 2,173 |
| Music | 0.0 | 1.3 | 12.9 | 22.5 | 32.0 | 20.4 | 7.9 | 3.1 | 28.3 | 4.8 | 1,503 |
| Mathematics: Applications and Interpretation | 1.3 | 6.9 | 13.9 | 24.1 | 24.8 | 17.6 | 10.0 | 1.4 | 27.6 | 4.6 | 8,500 |
| Sports, Exercise and Health Science | 0.2 | 4.6 | 13.3 | 26.6 | 26.4 | 20.4 | 6.9 | 1.6 | 27.3 | 4.7 | 1,942 |
| Biology | 0.9 | 5.1 | 19.5 | 24.9 | 23.2 | 17.2 | 7.4 | 1.7 | 24.6 | 4.5 | 33,585 |
| Environmental Systems and Societies | 0.3 | 5.1 | 18.7 | 25.8 | 27.0 | 16.6 | 5.4 | 1.1 | 22.0 | 4.5 | 3,857 |
| Design Technology | 0.0 | 2.8 | 13.6 | 27.5 | 33.9 | 17.7 | 3.4 | 1.2 | 21.1 | 4.6 | 2,159 |
| Dance | 0.0 | 1.0 | 17.3 | 34.5 | 24.1 | 14.7 | 6.1 | 2.3 | 20.8 | 4.5 | 394 |
| History | 0.4 | 5.2 | 11.3 | 30.9 | 31.4 | 15.5 | 2.6 | 2.8 | 18.1 | 4.5 | 38,195 |
| Digital Society | 0.3 | 4.6 | 15.1 | 31.0 | 31.4 | 14.0 | 2.3 | 1.4 | 16.3 | 4.4 | 1,160 |
| Visual Arts | 0.5 | 3.9 | 21.5 | 31.2 | 24.7 | 12.8 | 2.9 | 2.4 | 15.7 | 4.3 | 9,709 |
| Film | 0.7 | 4.4 | 17.8 | 31.9 | 25.5 | 12.1 | 3.1 | 4.5 | 15.2 | 4.3 | 2,990 |
Percentage of students at each grade, as published. The grade 6 or 7 rate is the two shares added.
May 2026 figures are provisional.
Grade distribution by subject at SL, May 2026
Grades 1 to 7 in the 30 subjects with at least 100 students at SL in May 2026, the subjects with the most 6s and 7s first. Each bar starts with grade 7. In the table, the darker a cell, the larger its share.
| Subject | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | N | 6 or 7 | Mean grade | Students |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turkey in the 20th Century | 0.0 | 0.1 | 3.6 | 13.5 | 23.5 | 44.5 | 14.6 | 0.1 | 59.1 | 5.5 | 753 |
| Economics | 0.6 | 4.6 | 11.9 | 17.8 | 22.8 | 25.6 | 14.3 | 2.4 | 39.9 | 5.0 | 11,305 |
| Language and Culture | 0.0 | 0.0 | 7.4 | 24.0 | 32.2 | 29.1 | 7.4 | 0.0 | 36.5 | 5.1 | 258 |
| Literature and Performance | 0.0 | 0.8 | 9.4 | 20.3 | 31.2 | 30.8 | 5.5 | 1.9 | 36.3 | 5.0 | 616 |
| Brazilian Social Studies | 0.0 | 0.4 | 7.4 | 20.1 | 34.2 | 26.6 | 8.7 | 2.6 | 35.3 | 5.1 | 503 |
| Business Management | 0.7 | 4.7 | 10.7 | 20.6 | 25.7 | 24.9 | 10.0 | 2.8 | 34.9 | 4.9 | 14,167 |
| Philosophy | 0.2 | 2.8 | 9.9 | 18.6 | 31.7 | 24.5 | 8.6 | 3.7 | 33.1 | 4.9 | 2,934 |
| Geography | 0.5 | 3.6 | 10.1 | 19.4 | 31.8 | 24.9 | 7.5 | 2.3 | 32.4 | 4.9 | 4,724 |
| Chemistry | 2.1 | 9.1 | 18.1 | 20.3 | 18.7 | 18.9 | 10.5 | 2.3 | 29.4 | 4.5 | 18,475 |
| Computer Science | 1.4 | 7.2 | 21.3 | 20.0 | 20.6 | 19.0 | 8.4 | 2.3 | 27.4 | 4.4 | 4,140 |
| History | 0.3 | 3.7 | 7.6 | 24.0 | 36.7 | 20.9 | 3.3 | 3.5 | 24.2 | 4.8 | 9,460 |
| Psychology | 0.8 | 7.3 | 13.4 | 27.1 | 22.4 | 20.2 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 24.2 | 4.5 | 13,895 |
| Mathematics: Analysis and Approaches | 1.1 | 7.9 | 16.0 | 25.5 | 23.9 | 15.5 | 8.5 | 1.6 | 24.0 | 4.5 | 42,995 |
| Physics | 1.5 | 7.1 | 24.7 | 22.1 | 19.0 | 12.5 | 11.1 | 1.9 | 23.6 | 4.3 | 14,461 |
| Global Politics | 0.2 | 1.9 | 10.6 | 28.2 | 30.1 | 19.3 | 4.1 | 5.6 | 23.4 | 4.7 | 4,602 |
| Theatre | 0.2 | 1.9 | 15.7 | 28.6 | 26.5 | 16.5 | 6.7 | 4.0 | 23.2 | 4.6 | 1,289 |
| Biology | 1.7 | 8.0 | 18.9 | 25.6 | 22.2 | 15.3 | 5.5 | 2.8 | 20.8 | 4.3 | 22,064 |
| World Religions | 0.0 | 1.5 | 14.3 | 26.5 | 31.8 | 17.5 | 2.3 | 6.0 | 19.8 | 4.6 | 1,917 |
| Environmental Systems and Societies | 1.0 | 7.1 | 20.6 | 24.8 | 24.0 | 14.4 | 5.0 | 3.2 | 19.4 | 4.3 | 20,964 |
| Social and Cultural Anthropology | 0.3 | 4.8 | 11.4 | 26.5 | 31.4 | 16.5 | 2.6 | 6.5 | 19.1 | 4.5 | 1,735 |
| Digital Society | 0.4 | 3.7 | 14.1 | 28.9 | 31.5 | 15.9 | 3.1 | 2.5 | 19.0 | 4.5 | 1,284 |
| Music | 0.1 | 2.2 | 21.5 | 29.1 | 24.8 | 11.9 | 4.2 | 6.2 | 16.1 | 4.4 | 1,455 |
| Dance | 0.0 | 5.8 | 30.5 | 24.4 | 14.7 | 10.8 | 5.2 | 8.6 | 16.0 | 4.1 | 463 |
| Mathematics: Applications and Interpretation | 4.4 | 13.3 | 21.4 | 24.7 | 19.0 | 10.1 | 3.7 | 3.3 | 13.8 | 3.9 | 44,196 |
| Art History | 7.0 | 19.1 | 21.7 | 19.1 | 15.7 | 6.1 | 7.0 | 4.3 | 13.1 | 3.7 | 115 |
| Marine Science | 1.9 | 16.1 | 27.7 | 19.9 | 15.9 | 8.8 | 3.6 | 6.1 | 12.4 | 3.8 | 523 |
| Film | 0.7 | 6.7 | 20.0 | 31.6 | 19.9 | 10.1 | 2.0 | 9.0 | 12.1 | 4.1 | 1,843 |
| Design Technology | 0.4 | 6.5 | 21.5 | 37.8 | 23.3 | 8.4 | 0.3 | 1.9 | 8.7 | 4.1 | 1,966 |
| Sports, Exercise and Health Science | 0.8 | 8.5 | 26.1 | 30.9 | 20.1 | 6.6 | 1.9 | 5.3 | 8.5 | 3.9 | 6,313 |
| Visual Arts | 0.2 | 5.9 | 26.2 | 36.0 | 20.5 | 6.6 | 1.2 | 3.5 | 7.8 | 4.0 | 6,076 |
Percentage of students at each grade, as published. The grade 6 or 7 rate is the two shares added.
May 2026 figures are provisional.
Which subjects are included
- Each comparison is of one May session, and every figure in it is from that session's bulletin.
- HL and SL are shown separately. They are different courses, taken by different students, and their figures are never averaged together.
- Only subjects with at least 100 students at the level are included, so a class of a dozen can't stand out on a handful of grades. The results explorer has every subject, whatever its size.
- The language courses (Language A: Language and Literature, Language A: Literature, Language ab initio, Language B) aren't included, because the bulletins report their results by language.
More subject comparisons
- IB Subjects With the Highest Grade 7 RatesSubjects ranked by the share of students awarded a 7
- Average IB Grade by SubjectMean grades at HL and SL, ranked
- Most Popular IB SubjectsSubjects ranked by number of students
- Compare IB Subject StatisticsThe leading subjects in every May session
- IB Results Explorer: All Subjects and LanguagesEvery subject and language, with no minimum number of students
Source and methodology
These statistics are from the International Baccalaureate's statistical bulletins. The latest data shown is from the May 2026 assessment session.
Bulletins
- The IB Diploma Programme and Career-Related Programme Provisional Statistical Bulletin, May 2026
- The IB Diploma Programme and Career-Related Programme Final Statistical Bulletin, May 2025
- The IB Diploma Programme and Career-Related Programme Final Statistical Bulletin, May 2024
- The IB Diploma Programme and Career-Related Programme Final Statistical Bulletin, May 2023
- The IB Diploma Programme and Career-Related Programme Final Statistical Bulletin, May 2022
About this data
- May and November are separate assessment sessions. November is much smaller and mostly taken by schools in the southern hemisphere, so its figures aren't directly comparable with May's.
- The May 2026 figures are from the IB's provisional bulletin and may change when the final bulletin is published.
- Older bulletins call the people sitting the exams “candidates” and newer ones “students”. This site says “students” throughout.
- “<10” means the IB didn't publish the exact number because fewer than 10 students took the subject. These figures are never estimated or counted as zero.
- The grade 7 rate is the share of students the bulletin reports at grade 7. The grade 6 or 7 rate is calculated by IBonomics by adding the published shares for grades 6 and 7. Every other figure is as published.
- From May 2024 the bulletins include students who received no grade (N) in each subject's percentages, so grades 1 to 7 add up to slightly less than 100%. Earlier bulletins give percentages of graded students only.
- Bulletins up to May 2023 print figures to two decimal places and later ones to one. Each figure is shown as printed, and changes are compared at the lower precision.
IBonomics is not affiliated with or endorsed by the International Baccalaureate.