The Standing Conference of education ministers publishes the Abitur grades of every state. In the figures for 2025, 8,255 pupils finished with the top average of 1.0. That was 3.1 percent of all who passed. In the figures for the school year 2013/14, 4,569 of 324,431 successful candidates had a 1.0, about 1.4 percent.
The comparison has limits. The 2025 figures are provisional. Those for Baden-Württemberg are from 2023/24, and Bavaria had few candidates because of its return to the nine-year Gymnasium. The states also differ. In 2025 the average grade was 2.13 in Thuringia and 2.46 in Schleswig-Holstein.