Norfolk and Suffolk beat national average in driving test

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Learner drivers in Norfolk and Suffolk have continued to better the national average when it comes to passing their driving test, with the most successful pupils in Ipswich and Norwich.

The latest statistics from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), covering April 2018 to March 2019, show that compared to the national pass rate of 45.8%, 51.1% of pupils in Norfolk passed, and 50.9% in Suffolk.

By test centre in the two counties, candidates in Ipswich were most likely to pass, with a 60.1% success rate, and pupils in Bury St Edmunds were least likely, with 42.2.% passing, below the national average.

Males once again outperformed females, with 54.4% of males in Norfolk and 53.7% of males in Suffolk passing, compared to 48.2% of females in Norfolk and 48.4% of females in Suffolk.

Teenagers triumph on the test
And it was 17-year-olds in both Norfolk and Suffolk who once again came out on top as the age most likely to pass (DVSA reports individually on 17 to 25-year-olds), once again showing the confidence of youth in action.
Of those taking their test for the very first time, more than half in Norfolk and Suffolk succeeded, again better than the national average.

Achieving the perfect drive
Among those passing at the first attempt were the extra special minority who managed to do it without picking up any driver faults – in Norfolk 177 pupils achieved this, just 1% of all the tests taken across the county, and in Suffolk 128 managed it, only 0.7%.
On the automatic test, the national pass rate continued to be lower than the manual test – 38.8%, but candidates in Norfolk and Suffolk both outperformed this average. 45% of pupils in Norfolk passed and 44.7% in Suffolk.