GCSE Results day 2016: The headline figures

The proportion of candidates getting a C grade or above has fallen to the lowest level for almost 10 years. The figure is 66.9%, down from 69.0% last year. This is the lowest since 2008.

The percentage of candidates receiving the top grades has also dropped. A total of 20.5% of entrants got A or above, down from 21.2% last year. This is the lowest since 2007, when the figure was 19.5%.

A total of 6.5% of entrants received the very top grade of A*, a slight fall (0.1 points) on last year. This continues a downward trend since a peak of 7.8% in 2011.

The gap between the percentage of girls and boys getting grade C and above is now at its widest since 2002. 71.3% of girls got a C or above, compared with 62.4% of boys - a gap of 8.9 percentage points. The gap last year was 8.4 points.

The overall pass rate fell slightly. The number of candidates receiving A*to G was 98.4%, down 0.2 percentage points on last year. The peak was 99.0% in 2012.

There were 5,240,796 entrants for the exams, down very slightly (0.7%) on last year's total.

There was a big drop in the number of English candidates getting grade C or above, from 65.4% in 2015 to 60.2% this year.

Maths also showed a fall, though not quite as large. The total dropped from 63.3% in 2015 to 61.0% this year.

Computing saw the biggest percentage jump in entrants, rising by 76% on last year.

Humanities saw the biggest percentage fall in candidates, dropping by 37%.