Pupils in small towns in England have better educational attainment on average than their peers in larger towns and cities, an analysis has suggested.
Students from cities outside London – except from Brighton and Hove – do less well than pupils from towns of all sizes across England, according to research by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The analysis, which looks at the educational attainment of pupils who sat their GCSEs in the 2012 to 2013 school year, said differences in incomes are part of the reason why young people in smaller towns secured better outcomes.
Smaller towns in England have a higher average attainment score partly because a larger share of these towns have low levels of income deprivation, the research suggested.
The ONS used a score that summarises the educational attainment of young people at different points throughout their education to compare towns.
A score of 0 was the average score of all areas, while negative scores reflected poorer than average performance and positive scores reflected better than average attainment.
