Candidates who sat for Level I of the CFA exam in December received their results Tuesday. The CFA Institute announced that 43% of the 68,086 individuals, or about 29,300, who took the exam passed. That pass rate has been stable for the past four iterations of the test, administered every June and December, the highest pass rates since June 2009 when 46% passed.
The number of candidates who took the exam increased by about 4,800 from last June, and 8,500 from the prior December.
Growth in the number candidates from China and India was particularly high, as the number of Chinese candidates was up 38% from December 2016 and the number of Indian candidates grew by 20% over the same period. Fifty-six percent of all candidates were from the Asia-Pacific region, while the number of women and students who took the exam was up as well.
