Actuarial science is significantly more mathematical than accounting (take it from someone who studied accounting).
Actuaries tend to work in areas that involve calculating risk e.g. pensions, insurance, credit ratings, etc. They are often there to calculate the likelihood of payouts and look at various stats models. Having said that, the official actuary qualification for the UK covers various areas of financial mathematics, so technically they can do a lot more but they don't.
See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ActuaryThe IFoA doesn't strictly require you to have a maths degree, but something like A Level Maths is a great way to get in. Since you're doing both Math A Levels, you should be more than OK for their apprenticeships.
https://actuaries.org.uk/membership/types-of-membership/student-membershiphttps://actuaries.org.uk/qualify/become-an-actuary/route-to-becoming-an-actuary/https://actuaries.org.uk/qualify/become-an-actuary/actuarial-apprenticeships/The thing I don't particularly like about actuary is that you're restricted by what sort of employers you can be hired by, whereas you can be an accountant pretty much anywhere. e.g. if you decide to move abroad, you need to do actuary qualfications for that specific country; with accounting you can work in a company, in a different sector, in a different role, for yourself, and sometimes even in a different country if your qualification allows you to.
You still need to pass something like 15 papers to qualify + relevant recognised experience as an actuary, similar to how you qualify as an accountant, To me, accounting is more of an art form whereas actuary involves more science. Also, the maths in accounting is relatively straightforward i.e. simple arithmetic most of the time, whereas actuary uses some actual maths e.g. calculus, probability, statistics, linear algebra, series/sequences, logarithms.
See:
https://www.quora.com/What-type-of-mathematics-do-actuarial-science-students-have-to-learnhttps://www.quora.com/What-kind-of-math-is-involved-in-actuarial-sciencehttps://www.quora.com/What-are-the-mathematical-topics-that-are-relevant-to-actuarial-sciencehttps://actuaries.org.uk/curriculum/https://www.actuaries.org.uk/system/files/field/document/Curriculum2019_201803.pdfInterestingly, should you wish to do an accounting qualification and then qualify for the IFoA, you get exemptions from 2 out of the 15 papers. See:
https://actuaries.org.uk/qualify/exam-exemptions/other-professional-bodies-route-c/It's not much to talk about, but it's something.
On the other hand, if you do the IFoA before you do your accounting exams, you get no exemptions from ACA, CIMA, ICAEW. I am not sure about ICAS, CAI, AIA, etc. since they don't have exemption calculator on their websites.