The International Baccalaureate (IB) has released its Final Statistical Bulletin for the May 2025 assessment session, and it tells a fuller story than the preliminary numbers announced last July: 202,102 students across 153 countries sat exams, and 81.9% of Diploma Programme (DP) candidates passed (International Baccalaureate Organization [IBO], 2025). Unlike the preliminary results schools receive on results day, this final bulletin folds in corrections from Enquiries upon Results and late school submissions, plus something rarer: five full years of comparable trend data. That combination makes it the most reliable window into how IB outcomes have actually shifted since the pandemic recovery.
Key Takeaways
- The IB's final May 2025 data shows 202,102 students across 153 countries, with an 81.9% DP pass rate and a mean score of 30.6 points (IBO, 2025).
- Top-band scorers (40-45 points) have nearly halved since 2021, from 18.4% of diploma candidates down to 9.8% in 2025, even as the overall pass rate recovered.
- Language Acquisition subjects post the highest mean grade (5.2) of any subject group; The Arts and Interdisciplinary subjects sit lowest (4.3).
- IB Americas remains the largest region by both schools and students, though IB Africa, Europe and Middle East is growing fastest in school count.
What Are the Official 2025 IB Results?
The IB's final May 2025 data confirms 202,102 students sat exams across 3,400 schools in 153 countries, submitting 758,854 individual subject entries for a mean grade of 4.7 out of 7 (IBO, 2025). Diploma Programme candidates made up 63.5% of that cohort, Career-related Programme (CP) students 4.3%, and Course-only students, those taking individual subjects without pursuing a diploma or certificate, the remaining 32.1%.
The two qualification tracks post very different outcomes. DP diploma candidates achieved an 81.9% pass rate and averaged 30.6 points out of a possible 45, a rate that has climbed back from a five-year low of 80.0% in 2023 (IBO, 2025). CP certificate candidates, a smaller and faster-growing group, posted a 76.2% pass rate and a mean grade of 3.7.
2025 IB Students by Qualification Type
2025 IB Students by Qualification Type
Is a 32.1% Course-only share surprising? Not really. Plenty of students, particularly those retaking a subject or completing just one or two courses at their school's discretion, never intend to pursue the full diploma.
How Do 2025 DP Scores Compare to the Last 5 Years?
Mean total points for DP diploma candidates have not returned to pre-pandemic levels: from 33.0 points in 2021, the average fell to a low of 30.2 in 2023 before recovering slightly to 30.6 in 2025 (IBO, 2025). Pass rates followed a similar arc, dropping from 89.0% in 2021 to 80.0% in 2023, then climbing back to 81.9% this year.
DP Diploma Mean Total Points, 2021-2025
DP Diploma Mean Total Points, 2021-2025
The number of students actually awarded the diploma has grown steadily even as average scores dipped: from 88,541 in 2021 to 102,233 in 2025, a 5.7% increase over 2024 alone (IBO, 2025). In other words, more students are earning the diploma each year, even though the average candidate's score sits below the 2021 peak. Growing cohort size, not grade inflation, is doing most of that work.
For a look at the very latest (preliminary) session, see our breakdown of the May 2026 IB results, announced just last week.
Fewer Top Scorers Than the Pandemic Years
The share of DP diploma candidates scoring in the top band, 40 to 45 points, has nearly halved since 2021: from 18.4% of candidates down to 9.8% in 2025 (IBO, 2025). Over the same period, the bottom band (0-23 points) grew from 8.4% to 14.5%. Today's score distribution is wider and more typical than the compressed, high-scoring pattern seen during pandemic-era grading.
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Our analysis: Comparing the IB's own five-year point-band tables shows the middle and lower bands absorbing almost the entire decline in top scores, not a uniform drop across the board. This isn't evidence that students are performing worse. It's a return to a broader, more historically normal spread after several years of unusually compressed grade boundaries.
DP Diploma Point-Band Distribution: 2021 vs 2025
DP Diploma Point-Band Distribution: 2021 vs 2025
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What does this mean if you're two years out from your own exams? Don't benchmark yourself against a 2021 grading curve that no longer exists. The 30-34 point band is now the single largest group, at 27.6% of candidates, so that's a more realistic target range than it was five years ago.
Which IB Subject Groups Score Highest and Lowest?
Language Acquisition posts the highest mean grade of any subject group at 5.2, followed by Studies in Language and Literature at 4.9 (IBO, 2025). The Arts and Interdisciplinary subjects, including Environmental Systems and Societies, sit lowest at 4.3, with Mathematics close behind at 4.4.
Mean Grade by IB Subject Group, 2025
Mean Grade by IB Subject Group, 2025
Sciences average a 4.5 mean grade as a group, but that combines wide variation: Chemistry Higher Level averages 4.8, while Biology Higher Level sits at 4.5 (IBO, 2025). Mathematics shows the widest internal spread of any group, Analysis and Approaches HL averages 4.9 while Applications and Interpretation SL averages just 3.9, reflecting how differently the two math pathways are structured rather than one being definitively "easier."
A subject group average is a starting point, not a decision-maker. Physics, Psychology, and English all sit close to the overall 4.7 cohort average, so interest and teacher quality at your school will matter more than a half-point gap in the official statistics. Browse the full IB subject guide for grade boundaries and course requirements by subject.
Where Are IB Students Located, and Which Region Is Growing Fastest?
IB Americas remains the largest region for both DP schools (44.2%) and DP students (49.7%) in 2025, but IB Africa, Europe and Middle East (AEM) is growing faster: its school count rose from 1,051 in 2021 to 1,287 in 2025, a 22.5% increase, compared with roughly flat growth in the Americas over the same period (IBO, 2025).
The IB's reach is genuinely global. Students from 153 countries and 213 different first nationalities sat the May 2025 session, with the United States (100,079 students) and Canada (13,168) anchoring the Americas, and Spain (6,597), the United Kingdom (5,064), Germany (2,458) and the UAE (2,977) leading in AEM (IBO, 2025). In Asia-Pacific, India (6,083) and China (5,157) posted the largest cohorts. That spread of first languages, 210 in total, is exactly why answers written in plain, jargon-explained English serve this audience better than assuming a shared cultural shorthand.
How Do the Extended Essay and Theory of Knowledge Fit Into the Diploma?
Alongside six subjects, every DP diploma candidate completes a Theory of Knowledge (TOK) course and a roughly 4,000-word Extended Essay (EE), both graded A to E and combined into up to 3 "core points" added to the 45-point total (IBO, 2025). The average core score has held at 1.4 to 1.5 points across all five years, a rare pocket of stability in an otherwise shifting scoring landscape.
Girl reading in a library surrounded by books
English A was the most popular Extended Essay subject by a wide margin, followed by History, Business Management, Psychology and Biology (IBO, 2025). Of the 101,788 TOK essays graded, 89,987, about 88%, were submitted in English, with Spanish (7,968) and Chinese (1,857) a distant second and third. Grade distributions for both components cluster heavily around B and C, so an A grade on either the EE or TOK is a genuine differentiator rather than a routine outcome.
Getting the EE topic and research question right early tends to matter more than any other single factor in how the essay is eventually graded. (Internal link placeholder — guide on EE topic selection and research question framing; resolve before publishing)
Get Support With the Parts of the Diploma That Actually Move Your Score
Subject choice, Extended Essay planning and consistent Higher Level support account for more of the gap between a 30-point and a 40-point diploma than any single exam technique. Top IB Tutors works with students preparing for Extended Essay supervision and Theory of Knowledge, matched with tutors who have sat these exact exams themselves.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the IB Diploma pass rate for 2025?
The IB's final May 2025 bulletin puts the DP diploma pass rate at 81.9%, up from a five-year low of 80.0% in 2023 (IBO, 2025). The mean score was 30.6 out of 45 points, based on 128,398 diploma-track candidates across 3,241 schools worldwide.
How many students take the IB globally?
202,102 students across 3,400 schools in 153 countries sat IB assessments in the May 2025 session, spanning the Diploma Programme, Career-related Programme, and standalone Course registrations (IBO, 2025). That's a 4.8% increase over the 192,866 students recorded in May 2024.
Which IB subjects have the highest average grade?
Language Acquisition subjects, language B and ab initio courses, post the highest mean grade of any subject group at 5.2, according to the IB's 2025 subject-group data (IBO, 2025). Individual subjects vary widely though, so a group average shouldn't be the only factor in choosing a subject.
What's the difference between preliminary and final IB results?
Preliminary results reach schools and students on results day in July, while the Final Statistical Bulletin follows roughly a year later and folds in corrections from Enquiries upon Results and late school submissions (IBO, 2025). The final bulletin is the authoritative dataset for year-on-year comparisons.
Conclusion
The final May 2025 data confirms what the preliminary numbers hinted at back in July: IB pass rates and scores have stabilized after several volatile pandemic-era sessions, even if they haven't fully returned to 2021 levels. The more interesting story sits underneath that headline number: a shrinking share of ultra-high scorers, a widening spread across grade bands, and steady growth outside the IB's traditional Americas base. None of that changes what actually drives an individual result, subject choice, Extended Essay planning, and consistent support through the two-year programme. (Internal link placeholder — pillar page on HL/SL subject selection strategy; resolve before publishing)
