How Many Students Appeared for NEET? NTA Data 2019 to 2026

How Many Students Appeared for NEET? NTA Data 2019 to 2026

The number of students appeared for NEET (UG) 2026 is 19,99,895, out of 22,79,743 who registered, according to the National Testing Agency (NTA). That is the second highest registration count on record, but only the fourth largest turnout, behind 2024 (23,33,297 appeared), 2025 (22,09,318) and 2023 (20,38,596). For NEET 2027 no figure exists yet: registration has not opened, so anyone quoting a 2027 total is guessing. Below is every official number since 2019, what changed in 2026, and how to read it for your own preparation.

How many students appeared for NEET each year since 2019?

Between 13.67 lakh and 23.33 lakh students appeared for NEET each year from 2019 to 2026. NTA's own sheet, "Key Data Points of NEET (UG) over Years", gives registered, appeared and absent counts for all eight cycles, and those three columns add up exactly in every year. The table below copies them as published.

The source is the Key Data Points of NEET (UG) over Years sheet that NTA released in July 2026 alongside the result. The absent share is our arithmetic (absent divided by registered).

Year	Registered	Appeared	Absent	Absent share
2019	15,19,375	14,10,755	1,08,620	7.15%
2020	15,97,435	13,66,945	2,30,490	14.43%
2021	16,14,777	15,44,273	70,504	4.37%
2022	18,72,343	17,64,571	1,07,772	5.76%
2023	20,87,462	20,38,596	48,866	2.34%
2024	24,06,079	23,33,297	72,782	3.02%
2025	22,76,069	22,09,318	66,751	2.93%
2026	22,79,743	19,99,895	2,79,848	12.28%

Two things stand out. First, the number of students appeared for NEET has grown by roughly 42% in seven years (from 14,10,755 to 19,99,895), and registrations by half, and most of that growth came in one stretch: 2021 to 2024 added almost 8 lakh registrations. Second, registrations have now been flat for two cycles. 2026 had only 3,674 more registrations than 2025, a rise of 0.16%.

Why did fewer students appear for NEET (UG) 2026?

Fewer students appeared for NEET (UG) 2026 because 2,79,848 registered candidates did not sit the paper, the largest absence in NTA's eight-year series. The appeared figure of 19,99,895 belongs to the re-examination of 21 June 2026, which NTA conducted after the paper first held on 3 May 2026. NTA does not state a reason for the absences.

Here is what the official documents do say. NTA's re-examination notice of 15 May 2026 set the new date as Sunday 21 June 2026, in pen and paper mode in 13 languages, with no fee charged and no corrections allowed except address and exam city. The result press release of 16 July 2026 describes "close to 20 lakh candidates" and titles its overview "Candidates who appeared in NEET UG Exam on 21st June 2026". So 2026 was a cycle with two exam dates, and only the second one counts. Registration itself did not shrink. Appearance did.

Should you read anything into the lower count of students appeared for NEET in 2026? Carefully. The absent share had been between 2.34% and 3.02% from 2023 to 2025. A one-off spike in a year with a cancelled paper is not a trend, and it would be wrong to assume 2.8 lakh people will skip NEET 2027 too. The only other high year, 2020, is also an outlier in the table (14.43% absent). For planning, the 2023 to 2025 pattern is the safer baseline: roughly 97 of every 100 registered candidates turn up.

How many students qualified NEET out of those who appeared?

In 2026, 11,21,185 of the 19,99,895 students who appeared for NEET qualified, which is 56.06%. In 2025 it was 12,36,531 of 22,09,318 (55.97%), and in 2024 it was 13,15,853 of 23,33,297 (56.39%). Qualifying means reaching your category's percentile, not getting a seat.

The share of students appeared for NEET who then qualify stays near 56% because the bar is a percentile, not a fixed mark. The general cut-off is the 50th percentile and SC, ST and OBC candidates sit at the 40th, so the marks needed move with the paper while the proportion barely does. In 2026 the UR/EWS qualifying range was 715 to 213 marks, against 686 to 144 in 2025. That is a 69-mark jump in the cut-off in a single year, with almost the same qualifying share. We explain the percentile rule in full in NEET qualifying marks, including the category-wise counts, so they are not repeated here.

Qualifying is the floor. Rank decides the seat. NTA's press release shows 90,780 candidates scored 500 or more in 2026 and 10,160 scored 600 or more, which is the part of the field you are actually competing with for a government MBBS seat. Our guide to NEET marks vs rank works through those score bands. For the seat side, futureMBBS has set out the MBBS seats in India for 2026 against NEET numbers.

Which states have the most students appearing for NEET?

Uttar Pradesh has the most students appearing for NEET: 3,28,847 in 2026, about one in six of all candidates. Maharashtra (2,01,100), Rajasthan (1,92,023), Bihar (1,40,079) and Karnataka (1,17,564) follow. These five states alone account for nearly half of everyone who appeared for NEET (UG) 2026.

Table 9 of the NTA sheet gives every state and union territory. The nine largest by registration:

State	Registered 2026	Appeared 2026	Appeared share	Qualified 2026
Uttar Pradesh	3,56,079	3,28,847	92.4%	1,70,770
Maharashtra	2,22,849	2,01,100	90.2%	1,07,304
Rajasthan	2,08,583	1,92,023	92.1%	1,33,140
Bihar	1,52,924	1,40,079	91.6%	68,968
Karnataka	1,45,852	1,17,564	80.6%	65,901
Tamil Nadu	1,42,494	1,08,601	76.2%	61,306
Madhya Pradesh	1,18,084	1,05,514	89.4%	55,655
Kerala	1,13,786	84,664	74.4%	51,782
West Bengal	1,08,944	93,381	85.7%	52,746

The appeared share (students appeared for NEET divided by those registered) is our arithmetic from NTA's columns. Notice how uneven the 2026 absence was: about 92 of every 100 registered candidates appeared in UP and Rajasthan, but only 74 in Kerala and 76 in Tamil Nadu. NTA gives no state-level explanation, so we don't offer one. Rajasthan is the other story in this table. Its candidates qualified at 69.3% of those who appeared, the highest share among the large states, and its registrations rose from 1,80,637 in 2025 to 2,08,583 in 2026.

State numbers matter more than they look. A large share of MBBS seats is filled through state counselling, where you mainly compete with candidates from your own state. A Bihar candidate and a Kerala candidate face very different local fields. futureMBBS explains how NEET reservation and state quotas split those seats.

Are more girls than boys appearing for NEET?

Yes. Girls have outnumbered boys in every NEET since 2019, and their share has grown. In 2026, 13,32,914 female and 9,46,815 male candidates registered, so women made up 58.47% of the field, up from 55.22% in 2019. Of the students appeared for NEET (UG) 2026, 11,52,152 were women and 8,47,732 were men.

Women also qualified at a slightly higher rate in 2026: 56.8% of women who appeared qualified, against 55.1% of men, and more than 58% of all qualified candidates were women. Fourteen Third Gender candidates registered in 2026 and eleven appeared.

The same sheet carries language data too. English remains the medium of most candidates, with 18,08,535 registrations in 2026, and Hindi is second at 3,45,247. If you are weighing which medium to choose, our page on NEET Hindi medium uses those figures in detail.

How many students will appear for NEET 2027?

Nobody knows yet how many students will appear for NEET 2027, and no official estimate exists. NTA's examination calendar published on 16 September 2026 runs to March 2027 and lists 14 exams, none of them NEET (UG). The registration count will only exist after the 2027 window closes, and the appeared count only after the exam.

You will see confident figures online anyway for the students appeared for NEET 2027. They are not from NTA. What the record does allow is a plain description: the last three cycles each had between 22.76 lakh and 24.06 lakh registrations, and in normal years about 97% of registered candidates appeared. That is the size of field the system has handled recently. It is a range drawn from past data, not a forecast for 2027.

Two official things to watch. The first is the NEET (UG) 2027 information bulletin, which will set the dates, the mode and the registration window; our NEET 2027 exam date page tracks it. The second is the NTA examination calendar, which NTA says is tentative and does not count as a notification for any exam. If you are still checking whether you can sit at all, start with the NEET 2027 eligibility criteria.

What these numbers mean for your preparation

Big numbers can feel crushing. Twenty lakh is a hard number to picture. But the total is the least useful number in this whole post for a single candidate, for three reasons.

First, more than half of the students appeared for NEET qualify, so qualifying is not where the competition is. Second, the real contest is in the top slice: 10,160 people scored 600 or more in 2026, and that is where most government seats are decided. Third, you mostly compete inside your state and your category. A rank of 50,000 means very different things in different states.

There is also one encouraging line in NTA's press release. Of the 138 candidates who scored above 690 in 2026, over 93% were appearing for NEET (UG) for the first time, and 99% were between 17 and 19 years old. So NTA's own numbers do not suggest that a top score needs several drop years. A clear plan from Class 11 and honest practice under exam conditions matter more. If you are deciding whether to take another year, our NEET 2027 dropper strategy is written for exactly that choice.

How to check NEET candidate numbers yourself

NTA publishes how many students appeared for NEET every year, but the figures sit in scanned PDFs that are easy to misread. Use this order:

1. Start with the result press release. It gives the headline count of students who appeared for NEET (UG) and qualified, the number of centres (5,440 centres in 551 Indian cities and 14 cities abroad in 2026) and the score bands.
2. Open the Key Data Points sheet for the series. Table 1 has registered, appeared and absent by year; tables 4 to 9 split 2025 and 2026 by gender, category, nationality and state.
3. Use table 1 for totals, not table 2. The category table's printed total for 2021 is 11,53,924, while table 1 and the sum of the categories both give 16,14,777. For 2023 the category columns add up to 20,38,596, which is the appeared figure, not the 20,87,462 registered.
4. Note which exam a figure belongs to. In 2026 the appeared count is for the 21 June re-examination, not for 3 May.
5. Treat any 2027 total as unofficial until NTA publishes the 2027 bulletin and, later, the 2027 result.

If you're preparing for NEET 2027, NEETsheet is our app for practice questions, full-length mocks and revision built around the NCERT syllabus. The mocks show where you're losing marks, which matters far more than how many people sit the exam. Have a look at NEETsheet.

Sources

• National Testing Agency, "Key Data Points of NEET (UG) over Years", July 2026, tables 1, 3, 4, 8 and 9: https://cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in/s37bc1ec1d9c3426357e69acd5bf320061/uploads/2026/07/202607161539405935.pdf
• National Testing Agency, press release "NTA Declares Result of NEET (UG) 2026", 16 July 2026: https://cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in/s37bc1ec1d9c3426357e69acd5bf320061/uploads/2026/07/20260716477215762.pdf
• National Testing Agency, public notice "Conduct of Re-examination for NEET (UG) 2026", 15 May 2026: https://nta.ac.in/Download/Notice/Notice_20260516152513.pdf
• National Testing Agency, public notice "Publication of the Examination Calendar of the NTA up to March 2027", 16 September 2026: https://nta.ac.in/Download/Notice/Notice_20260916195948.pdf
• National Testing Agency, NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin: https://cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in/s37bc1ec1d9c3426357e69acd5bf320061/uploads/2026/02/202602231394640855.pdf
• National Testing Agency, official website: https://nta.ac.in/