Shropshire Star

Which Shropshire town is among the 'easiest' places in the UK to pass a driving test?

A new study has shown one Shropshire town to be among the top five places in the UK with the highest pass rates for learner drivers.

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A torn L plate lies on the ground.

The study, conducted by the motoring experts at Moneybarn, has analysed government driving test data to reveal which areas in the UK have the highest pass rates for learner drivers.

The data has also revealed how pass rates have changed over the last decade.

The number of conducted driving tests peaked in the 2016/17 financial year when more than 1.73 million drivers were tested on the roads. However, the highest annual passes occurred in the 2022/23 year, where 816,775 successful practical tests were recorded.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown measures, fewer people took a driving test in 2020/21. But those who did take a test saw a practical pass rate of almost 50 per cent – an 8.50 per cent increase from the previous year and higher than any other pass rate in the last decade.

Since 2020, the pass rate has stayed consistently higher than pre-COVID. However, it is experiencing a slow decline year-on-year, decreasing by just over 1 per cent between 2021/22 and 2022/23.

The latest data shows the average first-attempt pass rate for the country is 48.3 per cent.

But beating those odds, and being crowned the fourth 'easiest' place to pass your driving test is Ludlow with a high pass rate of 63.20 per cent.

Of the 1534 tests taken in Ludlow between April 2023 and September 2023, 970 have resulted in a pass, placing it among the highest pass rates of every test centre across the country.

Learner drivers in Kendal (Oxenholme Road) test centre have the most luck at passing their driving test, with a pass rate of 67.9 per cent.

Kendal is followed by Chichester, at 64.4 per cent and then Dorchester at 63.4 per cent.

Towns with the lowest passrate include Speke in Liverpool at 31.6 per cent, closely followed by the West Midlands own Featherstone (33.7 per cent) and Wolverhampton (also 33.7 per cent).