Driving test pass rates vary by centre because each centre measures a different mix of roads, traffic, candidates, preparation and booking pressure. In Western Australia, a Department of Transport freedom of information release shows two centres in one city sitting 28.1 percentage points apart. The rules may be identical, but the task on the day and the people attempting it are not. The rate matters as a practice clue, not as a personal forecast.
Those two Perth centres are run by the same agency under the same rules, yet they pass very different shares of the candidates who book them. Release 2026-0140 puts Midland at 28.3% and Cannington at 56.4% across 244,557 assessments at 22 centres. The exact gap is 28.1 percentage points, or 28 points when rounded. That is large enough to investigate, but not enough to declare that one centre gives an individual learner an easy test.
How wide is the national spread?
Across the 244,557 assessments at 22 centres in that same release, Western Australia passed 42.3% of Practical Driving Assessments. New South Wales driving tests pass about 56% statewide, rounded from the Transport for NSW Registration and Licensing Statistics portal. Queensland Q-SAFE practical tests pass about 61% statewide in Department of Transport and Main Roads open data. The driving test pass rates data page keeps the source and sample details for each figure together.
Victoria passed 72.2% of 492,504 drive tests from January 2024 to April 2026, according to a VicRoads freedom of information release. No practical pass rate with a named publisher is held here for Tasmania, South Australia, the Northern Territory or the Australian Capital Territory. Guessing would make the comparison look more complete while making it less trustworthy.
The tests, scoring arrangements, candidate populations, geography and published periods are not a controlled experiment, so a national ranking needs caution. Within Western Australia, where the agency, assessment name and release are shared, the centre gap is still nearly as large as some state gaps. The state by state comparison helps separate genuinely comparable details from missing ones.
What does one centre percentage actually contain?
The first hidden test is the road environment. A route through dense multi lane traffic, busy shopping streets, complex intersections, heavy pedestrian movement and difficult merges asks a candidate to process more information in less time than quieter suburban streets. Centres do not choose their surroundings, and assessors still need to observe a useful range of driving. The practical response is not to memorise a route. It is to identify the road types around the centre and become comfortable making safe decisions on comparable roads.
The second hidden test is the candidate intake. Centres near driving schools, universities, public transport interchanges or communities where learners have less access to a supervising driver can receive candidates with different amounts and types of practice. A centre rate therefore measures the people who arrived as well as the roads they drove. It cannot reveal how many hours each learner practised, whether that practice covered peak traffic, or whether the learner booked after an instructor said they were ready.
The third hidden test is booking pressure. Long waits can encourage a learner to reserve a place before they feel ready, because waiting until readiness might mean another long delay. ABC News reported the New South Wales testing backlog in August 2025. Queensland's Department of Transport and Main Roads publishes practical test lead and wait times by location as open data, making Queensland one of the few places where availability can be compared with outcomes without relying only on anecdotes.
Examiner variation is the explanation people reach for first and the one with the least support in the held evidence. Examiners work to a documented assessment standard with defined critical errors. Victoria provides a useful scale check: the VicRoads release shows that more than one drive test in five was ended early by the testing officer for a critical driving error. Individual judgement exists in any observed test, but the Western Australian 28.1 point centre spread is too large to reduce to personality alone.
What does each jurisdiction let you compare?
Western Australia: the held freedom of information release supports a genuine centre comparison under one assessment system. Among the 22 centres in release 2026-0140, Midland is the lowest named centre at 28.3% and Cannington the highest at 56.4%. It is a one off release, not a maintained dataset, so it ages from the day it was cut. The study of the hardest places to pass prints that limitation beside the figures.
New South Wales: the statewide rate of about 56% comes from the same Transport for NSW portal that publishes outcomes for roughly 150 individual test centres as a matter of course, making New South Wales the only jurisdiction with continuing centre level publication. That breadth is useful, but each centre result still reflects its candidates, local roads, bookings and reporting period rather than pure test difficulty.
Queensland: the statewide Q-SAFE rate of about 61% comes from Department of Transport and Main Roads open data. The results are broken down by local government area, licence class, booking type and age group, not by individual test centre. Lead and wait times by location sit in the same open data collection. That supports useful area and availability analysis, but it cannot identify an easier counter inside an area.
Victoria: the VicRoads release gives a statewide rate of 72.2% across 492,504 tests from January 2024 to April 2026, but no centre breakdown, so no sound Victorian centre rate is held. Any centre figure in circulation comes from a single driving school reporting on its own students, which describes that school's intake rather than everyone tested there.
Tasmania: no statewide practical pass rate with a named publisher is held here, so no numerical comparison or centre choice can be based on a Tasmanian figure from this site. A useful rate would need an agency release, a clear period and a known sample.
South Australia: no practical driving test pass rate is held, either statewide or by centre. That means there is no responsible numerical comparison to make from the material available here. The absence of a published figure does not imply a high or low pass rate, and it says nothing about a particular testing location. Local preparation should be based on the official assessment requirements and the roads near the booked location.
Northern Territory: no practical driving test pass rate is held. Small populations and long distances can make a centre statistic especially sensitive to who tested during a period, but there is no held figure from which to measure that effect. A learner should not substitute forum claims for agency data. Without a named publisher, period, assessment count and definition of a pass, a percentage cannot be checked or fairly compared.
Australian Capital Territory: no practical driving test pass rate is held. Nothing sound can be said about whether one location produces better outcomes than another. This is a useful boundary on the evidence, not an invitation to fill the gap with estimates. Compare the local licence process and assessment requirements, then practise the road environments you are likely to encounter without pretending an unavailable centre percentage exists.
Worked choice: Midland or Cannington
If you are learning in Perth and can get an appointment at either Midland or Cannington, release 2026-0140 shows you 28.3% for Midland and 56.4% for Cannington. The first step is arithmetic: Cannington's recorded rate is 28.1 percentage points higher. It is not honest to turn that into a claim that you personally gain 28.1 points by changing your booking, because the candidates at the centres were not interchangeable.
The second step is to list what changes with the booking. Cannington may have the stronger historical population result, but if it means a longer trip and roads you know less well, while Midland sits among intersections and merges you have practised repeatedly, the two pull in opposite directions. The release contains no adjustment for your preparation, travel, nerves, instructor advice or familiarity, so it cannot calculate which effect is larger for you.
The third step is a practical check, not another calculation. Drive around both areas at realistic times with a qualified supervisor, without attempting to trace or memorise a test route. Notice whether multi lane decisions, lane selection, gap choice, speed changes and observation feel controlled rather than rushed. If unfamiliar Cannington roads expose weaknesses, the higher centre rate has produced a useful practice list. If both areas feel equally familiar, the historical gap can reasonably become one factor in your choice.
The final decision is therefore conditional. If appointment timing, travel and road familiarity are similar, using the stronger Cannington result as a tie breaker is sensible. If reaching Cannington adds a stressful unfamiliar drive before the assessment, the statistic may not repay that cost. The worked example does not name an easier test. It shows what the numbers do well, identify a population difference worth investigating, and what they cannot do, issue an individual prediction.
How do you turn a centre rate into practice?
Use the numbers to choose where to practise, not just where to book. If the roads around a centre involve multi lane roundabouts, heavy merges, shopping strips or frequent lane changes, drive those types of roads for weeks beforehand with a qualified supervisor. Preparing for the environment is legitimate because observation, speed choice, positioning and safe gaps are the skills being assessed. Memorising a rumoured route is brittle: roadworks, traffic and assessor direction can change, while a transferable skill remains useful everywhere.
Where you have a genuine choice and the centre difference is large, taking the number into account is reasonable. Be honest about the trade. A centre an hour away with a stronger historical rate may also give you an unfamiliar approach, an earlier departure and roads you have barely seen. Compare appointment availability, travel, vehicle arrangements, instructor advice and the kinds of roads you can practise. A percentage earns a place in that decision, but it does not deserve the whole decision.
Do not treat a pass rate as a probability that applies to you. It describes a population. A prepared candidate at a hard centre can be better placed than an unprepared candidate at a centre with a high rate. Victorian attempt data makes the point cleanly: first attempts passed 74.2% and fifth attempts 51.7%, a 22.5 percentage point drop, in the VicRoads freedom of information release. The release does not provide second, third or fourth attempt figures, so they are unknown, not values to estimate. The pass rate by attempt page sets out that bounded comparison.
When has the percentage run out of road?
A centre rate becomes stale, misleading or both when its period is unclear, its sample is missing, the assessment definition has changed, or the source covers only one school's pupils. The Western Australian figures have a known release and sample, but the release is not maintained. The Victorian statewide figures have a large known sample, but no centre detail. No Tasmanian statewide rate with a named publisher is held here. These are different gaps, and a neat percentage display should not hide them.
The safest reading is modest. A centre rate can flag a road environment to investigate, a booking pressure worth checking and a population result that deserves context. It cannot tell you which route will be used, which assessor you will meet, what errors you will make or whether you are ready. Use official requirements, varied supervised driving and candid instructor feedback to answer those questions. Let the statistic sharpen preparation, then leave the final judgement to the quality and consistency of your driving.
Common questions
- Question
- which driving test centre has the highest pass rate in Perth
- In the Department of Transport release 2026-0140, Cannington tops the named centres at 56.4%. Read that as a historical snapshot rather than today's ranking: the release was a one off and no newer maintained centre dataset is held, so the current leader could differ. Check current bookings and practise locally before choosing.
- Question
- why is the Midland driving test pass rate so low
- At 28.3%, Midland is the lowest named centre in release 2026-0140, but the release records outcomes, not causes. Local roads, traffic, how well prepared candidates were and booking behaviour could each play a part. Nothing in it supports blaming assessors or declaring that every individual test at Midland is harder.
- Question
- should I book my driving test at an easier centre
- Consider a large, well sourced centre gap as one factor, especially if you can practise around either location and travel is similar. Do not move solely for a percentage. A longer trip, unfamiliar roads or a different vehicle arrangement can remove the apparent benefit. The useful question is which booking lets you arrive rested and demonstrate skills already practised in comparable traffic and road conditions.
- Question
- does the driving examiner decide whether you pass
- The testing officer records the result against a written assessment standard with defined critical errors, so human observation is part of every test. That is not the same as the outcome depending on who you draw. VicRoads figures show more than one drive test in five ending early for a critical driving error, which points at the driving itself, and the held data gives no support to examiner personality as the main cause of centre gaps.
- Question
- do driving test pass rates include repeat attempts
- Often they do, unless the source splits them out. A centre or statewide total can mix first timers with people on a later try. The VicRoads release gives a partial split, with 74.2% of first attempts passing against 51.7% of fifth attempts, but the attempts in between are missing from that release and stay unknown.
- Question
- which is the easiest driving test centre in Sydney
- No Sydney centre should be labelled easiest from a pass rate alone. Transport for NSW publishes outcomes for roughly 150 centres through its Registration and Licensing Statistics portal, so you can compare recorded populations. Then check the reporting period, assessment count, current availability, travel and your familiarity with similar roads. A high past rate is evidence about earlier candidates, not a promise about your test.
- Question
- do shorter driving test wait times mean higher pass rates
- Not necessarily. Waiting can affect when people book and how prepared they are, but a short wait can also reflect local demand or available testing capacity. Queensland publishes practical test lead and wait times by location alongside outcome data, which allows the relationship to be examined. It still does not prove that waiting time caused a higher or lower pass rate.
Sources
- Department of Transport, Western Australia freedom of information release 2026-0140, agency freedom of information pageChecked
- Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner, freedom of information, the process behind the VicRoads drive test release covering January 2024 to April 2026Checked
- Queensland Government practical driving tests open dataChecked
- ABC News coverage of New South Wales driving test waits, 18 August 2025Checked