The Ministry of Education released preliminary registration figures on July 3, ahead of the exam later this year. The National High School Exam (Enem) 2026 registered 5,055,818 confirmed registrations. Also, the number represents a 5.08% increase compared to the 2025 edition, which had 4,811,338 participants. Thus, Enem 2026 reached its highest number of registrants since 2022.
New government measures boost demand for Enem 2026
Several factors explain the growth in Enem 2026. First, the Ministry of Education implemented automatic registration for public school seniors for the first time this year, enrolling them without requiring an individual application. In addition, the Ministry began offering a financial incentive of R$200 for candidates who attend both days of testing, an effort to reduce dropout rates. It also expanded the exam to 95 new municipalities, reducing travel distance and cost for some candidates on test day, particularly in rural and remote areas of the country. To learn more about the exam’s history, visit the Inep portal.
With these changes, the Ministry of Education expects about 80% of graduating public school seniors to take the test at their own school. Also, registration opened on May 26 and closed on June 5. Non-exempt candidates had until June 10 to pay the R$85 fee, or risk having their registration canceled before the exam even took place.
Test dates and the historical record
Enem will administer the tests on two Sundays, November 8 and 15, across all Brazilian states and the Federal District, following the same format used in previous editions of the exam. Despite this edition’s strong growth, the exam’s historical record still belongs to the 2014 edition, which totaled 8,722,290 registrants nationwide, a level the exam has not come close to matching since. To follow more news about education and other topics in Brazil, see more Brazil posts.
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