The easiest and hardest UK test centres to pass your driving test 2024
Where you take your driving test can have a big impact on how hard, or easy it is to pass. Let’s look at the latest numbers from the DVSA…
The easiest place to pass your practical driving test is Newtown in Wales, with more built-up areas in London, Liverpool and the Midlands among the hardest. That’s according to our latest analysis of the DVSA (Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency) data on pass rates at driving centres across the UK.
We looked at the data covering the 12 months from April 2023 until March 2024 to generate the lists of the easiest and hardest driving test centres in the UK to take your practical driving test. In the interests of fairness, we’ve excluded any test centre that conducted fewer than 1,000 tests over the period mentioned above because the test centres with the highest pass rates tended to be in remote locations in the Highlands and islands of Scotland, where only a few tests were taken.
The difference between the different locations is still startling when you consider that everyone is taking the same test. Wolverhampton is the hardest place to take your driving test in the country. Over 15,000 tests were taken in the 2023/24 financial year and only around one in three learner drivers passed. In Newtown, Wales – the easiest place to pass your driving test – there was a pass rate of over 67 per cent from more than 1,800 tests.
Built-up urban areas and city centres are definitely some of the hardest places to take your driving test in, with the top 15 locations including test centres in Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester and towns in the Midlands. In these kinds of driving environments, high levels of traffic, complicated junctions, multi-lane roads and an abundance of signage can provide an extra challenge for learner drivers.
By contrast, the list of the easiest places to pass your driving test include test centres in towns in more rural areas around the country, including locations in England, Scotland and Wales. Quieter roads with fewer complicated roundabouts and one-way systems would seem to boost the chances of learners passing their test.
According to the DVSA, the number one reason for someone failing a driving test is lack of observation at junctions. This is followed by failing to judge the speed of an approaching vehicle, entering a roundabout with a vehicle approaching from the right and making no effective observations at all.
The average pass rate for UK driving test centres as a whole over the period analysed was 47.9 per cent, with Newtown up at 67.7 per cent and Wolverhampton down at 32.4 per cent.
The hardest places to pass your driving test in the UK
Below are the top 15 toughest driving test centres by pass rate in 2023/2024…
| Test centre | Tests conducted | Passes | Pass rate (%) | |
| 1 | Wolverhampton | 15,295 | 4,949 | 32.4 |
| 2 | Speke (Liverpool) | 9,213 | 3,051 | 33.1 |
| 3 | Featherstone | 13,534 | 4,549 | 33.6 |
| 4 | Belvedere (London) | 4,716 | 1,689 | 35.8 |
| 5 | Chingford (London) | 15,601 | 5,633 | 36.1 |
| 6 | Norris Green (Liverpool) | 14,056 | 5,104 | 36.3 |
| 7 | Wednesbury | 8,751 | 3,191 | 36.5 |
| 8 | Crawley | 7,040 | 2,571 | 36.5 |
| 9 | Leicester (Cannock Street) | 15,189 | 5,617 | 37.0 |
| 10 | Luton | 12,603 | 4,662 | 37.0 |
| 11 | Rochdale (Manchester) | 7,538 | 2,889 | 38.1 |
| 12 | Bury (Manchester) | 7,743 | 2,959 | 38.2 |
| 13 | Greenford (Horsenden Lane) | 7,993 | 3,073 | 38.4 |
| 14 | Barking (Tanner Street) | 6,842 | 2,637 | 38.5 |
| 15 | St Helens (Liverpool) | 9,718 | 3,753 | 38.6 |
The easiest places to pass your driving test in the UK
Below are the UK driving test centres that carried out more than 1,000 tests with the highest pass rates for 2023/2024. A few test centres in remote locations have higher pass rates, with the test centre on Benbecula Island topping the list with an overall pass rate of 91.0 per cent from 111 tests.
| Test centre | Tests conducted | Passes | Pass rate (%) | |
| 1 | Newtown | 1,835 | 1,243 | 67.7 |
| 2 | Barrow In Furness | 1,796 | 1,190 | 66.3 |
| 3 | Kendal (Oxenholme Road) | 2,288 | 1,482 | 64.8 |
| 4 | Dorchester | 5,689 | 3,614 | 63.5 |
| 5 | Chichester | 7,210 | 4,541 | 63.0 |
| 6 | Skegness | 1,208 | 748 | 61.9 |
| 7 | Lancing | 8,856 | 5,434 | 61.4 |
| 8 | Peterhead | 1,291 | 784 | 60.7 |
| 9 | Abergavenny | 5,678 | 3,427 | 60.4 |
| 10 | Ipswich | 10,073 | 6,038 | 59.9 |
| 11 | Melton Mowbray | 2,427 | 1,451 | 59.8 |
| 12 | Yeovil | 6,949 | 4,146 | 59.7 |
| 13 | Carlisle LGV (Cars) | 2,231 | 1,331 | 59.7 |
| 14 | Haddington | 1,616 | 964 | 59.7 |
| 15 | Bridlington | 2,883 | 1,719 | 59.6 |
Have you taken your driving test at any of these locations? Let us know what it was like in the comments…
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