Explore Australia’s Easiest (and toughest) Driving Test Centres

Welcome to Pass Rate Paradise – where the road to your provisional driving licence becomes an easily reachable finish line through the information provided in this article.

As you work toward the final milestone of the driving test, giving yourself the best chance of success is crucial. Having to take the test multiple times is frustrating and chews up time that you could be on the road driving alone! Pass Rate Paradise is your ultimate guide to learners driving test pass rates across Australia, analysing more than 30,000 tests from January 2022 to December 2023. 

Scroll through to unravel the driving test pass rates across the country, in your state, and in your city, to give you the best chance of getting your provisional licence and hitting the road! 

 

Pass Rates by State

Each state has its own unique pass rate, so let’s get into the ranking scale of state pass rates. The average pass rate in Australia is 62%, now let’s see how each state stacks up against the national average.

Victoria boasts the highest pass rate of 75%, with Queensland almost on the Australian average with a pass rate of 61%. New South Wales falls just below the national average with a pass rate of 56%, and Western Australia turns out to be the toughest state to pass your driver’s test, scoring the lowest pass rate of all states analysed* with 35%. 

*As New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia all use similar test processes, we’ve included data for these four states only. Unfortunately, the data from the Northern Territory, Tasmania, South Australia and Australian Capital Territory are non-comparable with the rest of the country. See more details on methodology in the ‘About Pass Rate Paradise’ section.

 

"Pass rates in Perth are indicative of less experienced learners taking the driving test. In WA, only 50 mandatory hours are required before sitting the driving test, which is 50% lower than the 100 minimum required hours in QLD and 58% lower than the 120 minimum hours required in Victoria and NSW." - Patrick O'Connor, WA driving instructor

 

Test Centres with Highest Pass Rates Nationally 

If you’re looking for the best chance to pass your driver’s test, you might want to consider one of the centres below. The only catch is…9 out of the 10 test centres with the highest pass rates in Australia are located in Victoria. But don’t stress, we also analysed the highest and lowest ranking test centres in your city.

The top performing test centre across all centres analysed is the Frankston Customer Service Centre in Victoria, which is also the only centre with a pass rate in the 80s.

 

Highest Pass Rate Areas in Each State

Breaking down the state data even further, we outlined the top 3 cities in each state with the highest pass rates. We also identified the top 5 testing centres with the highest and lowest pass rates in each state capital. 

The city with the highest pass rate in Australia is Geelong, with a 77% pass rate. It sits at a whopping 15% above the Australian average and 2% above the state average. 

Perth sits on the other end of the scale, with a pass rate of just 35%. The city’s highest pass rate test centre sits at just 49%, 13% below the Australian average.

You’ll find further details for each state below.

 

Victoria

As we learned earlier, Victoria boasts the highest pass rates of the states analysed. In particular, Geelong takes the overall throne as the city with the highest pass rate across Australia. 

3 out of 4 tests taken in Melbourne end with a pass, while Bendigo sits in Victoria’s third spot with a pass rate of 68%.

Melbourne

For those living in Melbourne, test success rates can be increased significantly by heading out of the city centre itself. Looking into the more regional areas indicates some surprisingly high success rates within local driving centres. In particular, the Frankston Customer Service Centre stands out and leads the pack with an outstanding 83% pass rate, the best of any centre in Australia. 

Overall, Melbourne’s pass rates easily exceed other cities, with the lowest pass test centre, Dandenong Customer Service Centre*, recording a 67% pass rate - that’s still 5% better than the national average!

 

Queensland

Queensland ranks second nationwide for state specific driving test pass rates, and is only 1% under the Australian average with a successful pass rate of 61%. Brisbane is the city with the highest pass rate in Queensland, with the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast not far behind.

Brisbane

Test pass rates in Brisbane vary quite significantly between regions. Cleveland, Wynnum, Sherwood, and Logan City all have pass rates that are well above the average for Brisbane and Queensland. 

In contrast, the northern suburbs tend to record lower pass rates, with Carseldine, Caboolture and Strathpine coming in with a lower percentage of successful tests.

 

New South Wales

The pass rate across New South Wales of 56% is below the Australian average of 62%. However, Coffs Harbour, the Central Coast and Sydney make up the state’s top 3 areas with the highest pass rates, all above or par with the NSW average.

Sydney 

Test pass rates in Sydney vary significantly between the highest and lowest pass rate centres. In Sydney, the average pass rate is only 56%, but Castle Hill and Marrickville outperform this benchmark significantly, with impressive pass rates of 70% and 69%. If you’re taking your test in Sydney, you may want to consider travelling more inland, particularly north-west or south-west, as these areas have most of the top ranking centres in all of Sydney.

 

Western Australia

Unfortunately, Western Australia sits firmly at the bottom of the list of successful test pass rates, with a 35% overall pass rate for the state.

Perth 

While none of the Perth testing centres have a pass rate above the Australian average, the most successful tests are taken at the Success Department of Transport Service Centre (49%). The least successful pass rates are seen at the Mandurah and Midland Driver and Vehicle Services Centre (27%), making it the toughest test centre in Australia to pass your driver’s test.

 

Learner Age Groups

Getting your driver’s licence is identified as a developmental milestone for most young Australians, and often a necessity in places without sufficient public transport. Regardless of the reason, the rate of passing the driver’s test steadily decreases with each age group, with 40+ sitting at 52%, compared to 65% for drivers under the age of 20. 

 

Transmission Type

The transmission type of the vehicle used in a driver’s test can also affect both an individual’s and a driver’s centre’s pass rate. 

Automatic transmission vehicles have a pass rate of 63% when it comes to driver’s tests, just beating out manual transmissions at 59%. The data indicates that, out of over 30,450 applicants, only 4,290 drivers used manual transmission vehicles in their tests. 

 

About Pass Rate Paradise

At EzLicence, we pride ourselves on being at the forefront of driving education, offering not only valuable information but also a trusted resource for learners navigating the road to success.

Our comprehensive analysis of driving test pass rates across New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia leverages robust internal data. As the #1 booking platform in Australia for driving lessons and driving tests, EzLicence is an industry leader in the field of driver education and licencing. With access to a wealth of data, we have curated insights that provide you and your supervisor with a detailed understanding of pass rates, empowering you to make informed decisions on your journey to obtaining a driver's licence. 

We analysed a total of 30,450 tests from January 2022 to December 2023. The data presented in this whitepaper is derived from EzLicence's driving test packages completed during this period, where a driving test package is an EzLicence product that provides a learner driver with access to a driving instructor's vehicle for their driving test. 

The data in this whitepaper is based on EzLicence's driving test packages in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia, where all tests are conducted with authorised examiners. Please note that the Northern Territory, Tasmania, South Australia, and Australian Capital Territory offer additional alternative testing options, making their data non-comparable. For instance, in South Australia, learners can opt for the VORT pathway (authorised examiner) or the CBT&A pathway, where the driving instructor who taught the learner conducts the test.

It is important to note that the statistics contained in this whitepaper are exclusively sourced as first-party data. Please be aware that comparisons with data from alternative sources, such as governmental statistics, may yield variations due to differences in data collection methodologies. The cumulative pass rate disclosed in this whitepaper is calculated by dividing the total number of successful attempts by the overall number of learners who have undergone a driving test when using an EzLicence driving test package. To ensure the accuracy and relevance of the data, any test centres that are no longer operational have been excluded from the dataset.

 

*Dandenong Customer Service Center no longer provides driving tests as a service.