This Is the Hardest City to Pass a Driving Test In, Nearly 332,000 Failed in 2025

Nearly 332,000 people failed the driving test for a license in 2025. That is a six-year low: the pass rate stood at just 31.9%, compared with 37.1% in 2021, the peak in the period examined. In other words, over four years the pass rate fell by more than 5%. The data released by the Transportation Ministry at the request of Yisrael Hayom and the Movement for Freedom of Information for the years 2020 to 2025 paints a complex picture, not only are more and more candidates failing, but the gaps between test sites across the country are widening, and now stand at nearly double between the easiest city and the hardest one. On the other end of the scale, in Ofakim nearly one in two passes, 49.7%. It is followed by Eilat with 46%, Kiryat Malakhi with 44.1%, and Kiryat Gat with 42.8%. The gap between Ofakim and Jerusalem is nearly 25 percentage points. Whether the difference stems from road conditions, traffic load, the examiners’ style, or the candidates’ preparation, the gap is far from marginal. In Jerusalem, only one in four Israelis taking the practical test passes. In 2025, more than 57,000 people took the test in the capital, and fewer than 15,000 passed, a rate of 25.1%. It is followed by Netanya with 25.5%, Petah Tikva with 25.6%, and Beit Shemesh with 26.7%. In Jerusalem, the country’s largest testing site, the situation has been steadily worsening. In 2020, the pass rate stood at 29.8%, and since then there has been an almost continuous decline: 30.3% in 2021, 28.4% in 2022, 27.1% in 2023, 26.3% in 2024, and 25.1% in 2025. In 2022, the peak year in terms of the number of test takers, more than 44,000 people failed in Jerusalem alone in a single year. In 2025, the number reached a little more than 43,000. If Jerusalem has always been difficult, Netanya and Petah Tikva tell a very different story. Five years ago, in 2020, the pass rate in Netanya was 40.4%, right around the national average. In 2025 it fell to 25.5%, a drop of 15% in five years. Petah Tikva recorded a similar decline, from 37.4% in 2020 to 25.6% in 2025, a drop of almost 12%. Herzliya also fell sharply, from 41.5% to 29.6%. By comparison, Tel Aviv remains unusually stable, 39.1% in 2020 and 39.6% in 2025. A slight increase, while most of the country is moving backward. The number of people taking the test has grown significantly in recent years, from 338,000 in 2020 to a peak of 510,000 in 2022, a 51% increase. Since then, the number has remained relatively stable at around 480,000 to 500,000 test takers a year.

Avi Labogorn has been teaching driving in Petah Tikva for more than 40 years. “The students arrive prepared for the test, but test pressure creates mistakes that do not happen in lessons, so most of them now take the test on average around the 40th lesson,” he says. According to him, the gap in the data between the share of students who pass the test in the periphery and in the center is not related to the examiners but to infrastructure: “Cities in the south such as Ofakim and Eilat offer a calm environment with less congestion and fewer complex intersections, while cities such as Jerusalem, Netanya and Petah Tikva set a challenging standard and a large number of road users. In Petah Tikva, which showed a dramatic drop in the pass rate, the starting point of the test places the student in a difficult environment from the very first second.” Labogorn says the level of students in the current generation has not declined, “Young people need more time to develop confidence, but on the other hand they learn quickly and show especially high awareness of road safety.” To help candidates pass the test despite the challenges, Labogorn offers five tips for future test takers: “Arrive calm and prepared, look far ahead and plan your driving, be strict about mirrors and all-around checks, make decisions confidently, and most importantly, do not get upset over a small mistake and continue driving as usual.”

Shagit Hagbi, who teaches driving in Sderot, presents a unique southern perspective and explains that in cities such as Sderot and Ofakim, the roads are narrow, traffic is sparse and there are fewer pedestrians, which leads to slower speeds and means the test is completed over fewer kilometers, allowing students to succeed more easily. However, she identifies a decline in the practical abilities of the current generation: “The era of screens and technology has hurt the students’ spatial awareness.” Another interesting phenomenon Hagbi notes is an increase in the number of mothers and older women in their third age who are obtaining a driver’s license later in life. Hagbi describes the change in the current examiner system: “In the past, an examiner had to be a driving instructor, but today examiners are trained within a few months. The result is visible in the field and directly affects the students, the examiners are stressed, with a foot constantly on the brake, which reduces the student’s confidence.”

Attorney Dan Rosenthal of the Movement for Freedom of Information said, “The pass data in licensing exams is public information. The Transportation Ministry should publish it regularly and with full transparency. There is no reason to require repeated requests under the Freedom of Information Law in order to obtain a picture of pass rates and the gaps between test sites. Regular and open publication of the information is the only way to ensure public oversight, fair service and equal, professional criteria in driving tests in Israel.”