CUET UG 2026 in Numbers: Candidates, Subjects, States and 244 Universities

NTA publishes more about each CUET (UG) cycle than most candidates read: a registration press release with state-wise and subject-wise tables, a result release comparing the cycle with the previous one, and live lists of every participating university. Put together, the 2026 numbers show an exam that grew by about a sixth in a year, is taken overwhelmingly in English, draws more than two-fifths of its candidates from three states — and about a quarter of registrants (25.8%, our share) did not appear.

NTA result press release 23.06.2026 §7.

The science papers grew fastest: Physics +26.6%, Biology +26.4%, Chemistry +25.3% and Mathematics +22.7%, against +5.1% for Economics and +0.8% for Political Science (our percentages). Hindi, Agriculture and Environmental Science registrations fell. And the absentee rate is not small anywhere: even English, which almost every candidate takes, saw 72.4% of registrants appear; Environmental Science only 50.3%.

Every category grew in 2026, and the general category is now 43.8% of registrations (our share). EWS registrations fell sharply in 2025 and recovered only partly in 2026. For DU applicants these counts sit against a seat matrix whose UR share is about 41% of sanctioned seats (the DU cut-off guide in this series has the matrix).

Three things. First, the field is growing faster in the sciences than in commerce and humanities — Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics all added more than a fifth in one year — so, if seats and eligibility stay comparable, science-combination programmes may face more competition, not less. Second, a quarter of registrants do not sit the exam, which means registration figures overstate the real field; appeared counts are the better guide. Third, the field is concentrated: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Delhi supplied about 43% of registrations, and Uttar Pradesh alone sent almost as many candidates as the next three states together — 3,85,923 against 3,86,835 for Bihar, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh (our sum from the state table below).

City allocation followed the same geography: 79% of candidates got their first-choice city and 96.6% one of their choices; the 3.4% who got none were offered a re-selection window. The top of the result is more spread out than the registrations — among the 2026 top 20 by five-paper NTA-score total, Delhi and Rajasthan had four each, Bihar three, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal two each, and Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Kerala one each (our count of home states from NTA’s list; no names used).

The number of question papers jumped from 99 in 2024 to 322 in 2025 when the exam moved fully onto computers — and rose to 332 in 2026. The top of the result barely moved: twentieth place in the toppers table was within about one and a half points of the year before. The top of the result barely moved even as the field grew. For anyone aiming at a top DU programme, the relevant figure is not the toppers’ total but the minimum allocation scores in the DU cut-off guide in this series, which sit well below these totals and move by a few points a year.

“Participating” means a university uses CUET scores for at least some programmes — not that it uses them for all, or in the same way, so check each target university’s own admission notice before choosing papers. Each university sets its own eligibility, subject combinations, reservation and counselling; NTA’s role ends at the score. The count also moves: 283 institutions in 2024, 239 (or 241, in NTA’s later figure) in 2025, 244 in 2026.