For most new drivers, the written knowledge test is the first official hurdle on the way to a license, and it trips up a large share of the people who sit it. About 58% of Oregon’s 2025 written knowledge tests ended in a fail (about 1 in 1.72), and Great Britain’s car theory test pass rate was 44.8% in 2025 to 2026.
Those figures count tests, not people. Oregon’s Driver and Motor Vehicle Services (DMV) notes that a customer who takes the test twice, failing once and passing the second time, shows up as both a fail and a pass, so the rates describe attempts rather than individual drivers.
How often Oregon’s written knowledge tests end in a fail
Oregon publishes pass and fail rates for its Class C (standard car) knowledge test every year, broken down by the language of the test. In 2025, 197,792 tests were taken, 42% were passed and 58% were failed, or about 1 in 1.72 (our arithmetic). The fail share has sat between 55% and 60% in each of the last four years.
| Year | Class C knowledge tests taken | Passed | Failed | Odds a test was failed (our arithmetic) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 197,792 | 42% | 58% | 1 in 1.72 |
| 2024 | 223,227 | 40% | 60% | 1 in 1.67 |
| 2023 | 227,066 | 41% | 59% | 1 in 1.69 |
| 2022 | 199,605 | 45% | 55% | 1 in 1.82 |
Language makes a large difference. English language tests split evenly in 2025, with 50% passed and 50% failed across 140,625 tests (1 in 2, our arithmetic). Spanish language tests, the second largest group at 52,947, had a 21% pass rate and a 79% fail rate, about 1 in 1.27 (our arithmetic). The DMV began offering online testing in October 2023 and revised and newly translated all test questions the same month, which is worth keeping in mind when comparing 2022 with later years. In 2022, the DMV also removed the 28 day waiting period after a fourth failed attempt.
Great Britain’s theory and practical car test pass rates
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) publishes national pass rates for both of Great Britain’s car tests: the theory test and the on road practical test. In the 2025 to 2026 financial year (April to March), 2,924,430 car theory tests were conducted and 1,311,480 were passed, a 44.8% pass rate. That leaves 1,612,950 failed theory tests, or about 1 in 1.81 (our arithmetic).
The practical test came out slightly better. In 2025 to 2026, 1,998,621 practical car tests were conducted and 1,000,043 were passed, a 50.0% pass rate, which leaves 998,578 failed tests, or about 1 in 2.00 (our arithmetic).
| Financial year (April to March) | Theory tests conducted | Theory pass rate | Practical tests conducted | Practical pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 to 2026 | 2,924,430 | 44.8% | 1,998,621 | 50.0% |
| 2024 to 2025 | 2,792,839 | 44.9% | 1,839,817 | 48.7% |
| 2023 to 2024 | 2,594,741 | 45.2% | 1,945,225 | 47.9% |
| 2022 to 2023 | 2,432,302 | 44.2% | 1,688,955 | 48.4% |
| 2021 to 2022 | 2,463,621 | 50.1% | 1,538,314 | 48.9% |
| 2007 to 2008 | 1,451,348 | 65.4% | 1,762,148 | 44.2% |
Over the long run the two tests have moved in opposite directions. The theory pass rate was 65.4% in 2007 to 2008, 50.1% in 2021 to 2022, and between 44.2% and 45.2% in each of the four years since. The practical pass rate rose from 44.2% in 2007 to 2008 to between 47.9% and 48.9% in the four years from 2021 to 2022, and reached 50.0% in 2025 to 2026. DVSA labels its most recent data as provisional until the full financial year is published, and its next update is due in December 2026.
How often cheating on a driving test is caught
Cheating is not confined to classroom exams. The best known form of driving test fraud is impersonation, where someone else sits the test in the candidate’s place. In a written parliamentary answer on November 27, 2025, the Department for Transport said DVSA intercepted 647 practical test impersonation attempts between October 1, 2024 and September 30, 2025, up from 388 in the 12 months before.
| 12 months ending | Practical test impersonation attempts intercepted |
|---|---|
| September 30, 2025 | 647 |
| September 30, 2024 | 388 |
| September 30, 2023 | 442 |
| September 30, 2022 | 146 |
| September 30, 2021 | 0 |
Interceptions are cases where DVSA staff challenged the impersonator and stopped the test, or where a licence was revoked when evidence of impersonation came to light later. DVSA notes that practical test impersonations were included in general impersonation figures until 2021, so the earliest rows are likely not directly comparable with recent years (our inference). To make impersonation harder, examiners can see an enlarged copy of the candidate’s driving licence photograph.
A second written answer, on February 4, 2026, put the wider fraud picture in proportion. DVSA received 2,133 reports of fraud at the point of theory and practical tests in 2024 to 2025, and identified fraud cases equated to roughly 0.06% of theory tests and roughly 0.01% of practical tests, about 1 in 1,667 and 1 in 10,000 (our arithmetic). The department added that the volume and levels of undetected fraud are unknown.
How many Americans hold a driver’s license
For scale on the US side, the Federal Highway Administration reports that the nation reached 240 million licensed drivers in 2024. With a population aged 16 and over of 275 million, 87% of the driving age population has a license.
The short version
In 2025, 58% of Oregon’s Class C written knowledge tests were failed (1 in 1.72, our arithmetic), and in Great Britain’s 2025 to 2026 financial year 44.8% of car theory tests and 50.0% of car practical tests were passed. These rates count attempts, not people, and caught cheating is rare: DVSA intercepted 647 practical test impersonation attempts in the 12 months to September 30, 2025, while identified fraud equated to roughly 0.06% of theory tests.
Last checked: October 29, 2026, against Oregon DMV Class C knowledge test statistics for 2022 to 2025, DVSA car theory and practical test tables for April 2007 to June 2026 (last updated September 3, 2026), UK Parliament written answers from November 2025 and February 2026, and the Federal Highway Administration’s Our Nation’s Highways 2026. This article was machine-checked against the sources above and has not been expert-reviewed. Spotted an error or a newer public figure? Please tell us on our contact page with the article link and we will review it.
Sources
- S1 Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services, Oregon Department of Transportation. Oregon DMV Driver Statistics: Class C Knowledge Testing, Pass/Fail Rates by Language. https://www.oregon.gov/odot/dmv/pages/news/driver_stats.aspx Accessed Oct 29, 2026.
- S2 Department for Transport and Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency. DRT111A: Car theory tests conducted, passed and pass rates by financial quarter and financial year, Great Britain, from April 2007 to June 2026 (last updated 3 September 2026). https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a86e328b0504df9f2c89863/drt111a-car-theory-tests-great-britain.ods Accessed Oct 29, 2026.
- S3 Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency. DRT121A: Car driving tests conducted, passed and pass rates by financial quarter and financial year, Great Britain, from April 2007 to June 2026 (last updated 3 September 2026). https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a8730fb8346e5bc7c6db21f/drt121a-car-driving-tests-great-britain.ods Accessed Oct 29, 2026.
- S4 UK Parliament. Written question 92194, Driving Tests: Fraud, tabled November 18, 2025, answered November 27, 2025 by the Department for Transport. https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-11-18/92194 Accessed Oct 29, 2026.
- S5 UK Parliament. Written question 108791, Driving Tests, tabled January 27, 2026, answered February 4, 2026 by the Department for Transport. https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2026-01-27/108791 Accessed Oct 29, 2026.
- S6 Federal Highway Administration. Our Nation’s Highways 2026: Drivers. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/pubs/our_nations_highways_2026/drivers.cfm Accessed Oct 29, 2026.