22.8 lakh to take NEET (UG) re-test today across India
MUMBAI: A total of 22.8 lakh students from across India, who were issued hall tickets for NEET (UG) 2026 re-exam, will take the medical entrance test on Sunday.Data from the National Testing Agency shows that 81% of the candidates are in the age-group of 17 to 20, 17% are between the ages of 21 and 24 years and 4,133 are above 35. The pool of retest takers comprises 13.3 lakh female and 9.5 lakh male candidates.Uttar Pradesh once again accounts for the largest share of candidates at 3.6 lakh, followed by Maharashtra’s 2.2 lakh. Rajasthan, Bihar, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu each have well over one lakh aspirants. Together, these six states account for nearly half of the total number of candidates.The figures also underline the growing prominence of Rajasthan as a medical coaching hub. With more than 2 lakh candidates, the state ranked third nationally, ahead of several larger and more populous regions. Bihar’s share of 1.6 lakh candidates further highlights the intense demand for medical education across northern India, where competition for limited govt medical seats remains exceptionally fierce.Southern states continued to maintain a strong presence. Karnataka has registered 1.5 lakh candidates, closely followed by Tamil Nadu (1.4 lakh), Kerala 1.1 lakh and Telangana more than 73,000 aspirants. Perhaps the most striking trend, however, emerges from the language data. Of the 22.8 lakh candidates, nearly 18.1 lakh, that is almost four out of every five aspirants, will take the examination in English.Hindi was a distant second with 3.5 lakh candidates. All other languages together accounted for a relatively small fraction of registrations. Gujarati recorded the highest number among regional languages with nearly 50,000 candidates, followed by Bengali (38,577) and Tamil (29,845). Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Punjabi, Kannada and Odia together accounted for only a few thousand candidates.At the other end of the spectrum, UTs and northeastern states contributed modest but significant numbers.
