What the 88.0% counts
901 790 candidates registered for the November 2025 exams: 764 014 full-time and 137 776 part-time. The pass rate is worked out on the full-time candidates who wrote, 746 110 of them.
The Department of Basic Education (DBE) reports that 656 415 passed, a rate of 87.98%, up from 87.26% in 2024 (2025 NSC Examination Report, Executive summary and Table 1, page 6). Its chart of earlier years puts the rate at 81.3% in 2019 and 76.2% in 2020 (Figure 1, page 6).
“87.98% of the 746 110 full-time candidates who wrote passed.”
88.0%
Matric pass rate
The national senior certificate (matric) pass rate for the 2025 academic year was 88%, the highest on record and about 0.7 percentage points above 2024 (87.3%). Over 656,000 candidates passed; more than 900,000 full-time and part-time candidates wrote, the largest cohort ever. Bachelor's passes (university entrance) were 46% of passes, down from 48% in 2024, although a record 345,000+ candidates qualified for degree study. All nine provinces were above 80%; KwaZulu-Natal was highest at 90.6%.
DBE · Updated 12 January 2026
Which kind of pass
A pass comes in levels. The highest, a Bachelor pass, is the minimum for admission to a university degree. In 2025, 345 857 candidates achieved one, 46.4% of those who wrote. The DBE says this is the most since 1996, when the first national exam was written (page 7).
Another 209 292 (28.1%) achieved a Diploma pass and 100 729 (13.5%) a Higher Certificate pass (Table 2, page 8).
“345 857 Bachelor passes, 46.4% of those who wrote.”
Provinces
KwaZulu-Natal had the highest pass rate, 90.60%, and the highest share of Bachelor passes, 52.0%. Free State (89.17%) and Gauteng (89.00%) came next. Eastern Cape had the lowest pass rate, 84.17%, and Northern Cape the lowest share of Bachelor passes, 39.3% (Table 2, page 8).
The other provinces: North West 88.49%, Western Cape 88.14%, Northern Cape 87.77%, Mpumalanga 86.55% and Limpopo 86.15%.
Mathematics went the other way
The report lists ten high-enrolment subjects. In seven, a higher share of candidates reached 30% than in 2024. Mathematics fell: 64.0% of the 254 415 who wrote it reached 30%, down from 69.1% in 2024. Accounting (77.9%, from 81.2%) and Agricultural Science (81.2%, from 86.9%) also fell (Table 3, page 8).
Nearly twice as many candidates wrote Mathematical Literacy (477 160) as Mathematics, and 86.2% of them reached 30%.
“Mathematics: 64.0% reached 30% in 2025, down from 69.1% in 2024.”
A note on the totals
The report gives two slightly different national totals. The executive summary and Table 1 give 656 415 passes (87.98%). Table 2, which breaks passes down by type, gives 656 221 (87.95%), and its provincial rows add up to that figure. The provincial numbers in this story are from Table 2. The headline rate is the 87.98% the DBE announced.