Massive Turnout for NEET 2026 Re-exam
A total of 22.8 lakh students across India, who received hall tickets for the NEET (UG) 2026 re-exam, will sit for the medical entrance test on Sunday. Data from the National Testing Agency reveals that 81% of candidates are aged 17 to 20, 17% are between 21 and 24, and 4,133 are above 35. The retest pool includes 13.3 lakh female and 9.5 lakh male candidates.
State-wise Distribution
Uttar Pradesh accounts for the largest share with 3.6 lakh candidates, followed by Maharashtra at 2.2 lakh. Rajasthan, Bihar, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu each have over one lakh aspirants. Together, these six states represent nearly half of all candidates. Rajasthan's 2 lakh candidates highlight its growing role as a medical coaching hub, ranking third nationally. Bihar's 1.6 lakh candidates underscore intense demand for medical education in northern India.
Southern States and Language Trends
Karnataka registered 1.5 lakh candidates, Tamil Nadu 1.4 lakh, Kerala 1.1 lakh, and Telangana over 73,000. A striking trend is language preference: of 22.8 lakh candidates, 18.1 lakh (nearly 80%) will take the exam in English. Hindi is a distant second with 3.5 lakh candidates. Among regional languages, Gujarati has the highest count at nearly 50,000, followed by Bengali (38,577) and Tamil (29,845). Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Punjabi, Kannada, and Odia together account for only a few thousand candidates.
Other Regions
Union territories and northeastern states contributed modest but significant numbers to the candidate pool.
