NCLEX-RN pass rates for 2024 and 2025, from NCSBN's own reports
In 2025, 86.7% of first-time, US-educated candidates passed the NCLEX-RN, down from 91.2% in 2024. Repeat test takers passed at 52.7%, according to NCSBN's 2025 examination statistics report.
Published September 17, 2026
NCSBN publishes NCLEX pass rates every year in a research brief on examination statistics. The figures below come from the 2024 report, published in July 2025, and the 2025 report, published in June 2026. Both count candidates taking the NCLEX-RN for US licensure.
| Candidate type | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| First time, US-educated | 91.2% | 86.7% |
| Repeat, US-educated | 50.9% | 52.7% |
| First time, internationally educated | 53.8% | 47.3% |
| All candidates | 73.3% | 69.1% |
In raw numbers, 170,256 of 186,760 first-time US-educated candidates passed in 2024, and 167,272 of 192,916 passed in 2025. More people sat the exam in 2025 and fewer of them passed.
The 2025 rate by quarter
The 2025 report also breaks the first-time US-educated rate down by quarter: 88.4% in the first quarter, 89.1% in the second, 84.0% in the third and 81.2% in the fourth. The fourth quarter is lowest in 2024 as well, at 82.2%, so a year-end dip is normal, but each 2025 quarter came in below the same quarter of 2024, which ran 94.2%, 92.7%, 89.2% and 82.2%.
NCSBN's report gives the numbers, not an explanation for the drop, and we have not seen NCSBN attribute it to any cause. The new test plan cannot explain 2025 on its own, because it took effect in April 2026. Because the trend was moving when the last report closed, any single pass rate you read should be checked against the date it describes.
What a pass rate can and can't tell you
A national pass rate describes a population, not your chances. It averages candidates from every program and every level of preparation, and the exam itself decides each result against a fixed standard instead of grading on a curve. Nobody is failed to hold the pass rate down, which is a worry candidates raise often.
The repeat-taker figure is the one worth reading carefully if you are retaking. Roughly half of US-educated repeat candidates passed in each of the two years. That is the average of every retake, including people who changed nothing about how they prepared, and what to do after failing the NCLEX covers how to use your own performance report to avoid being one of them.
Where your school's rate comes from
Pass rates by program are not in NCSBN's national report. Many state boards of nursing publish them, and each board decides how to present its figures. If you want your own program's rate, your board of nursing's website is the place to look.
Measuring where you stand
A national rate cannot tell you whether you are ready, but an estimate of your own ability against the passing standard can. Our free adaptive NCLEX exam gives that estimate, and the readiness verdict inside the product is built to say not yet when the evidence says not yet. For how the real exam turns ability into a result, see the three stopping rules.
Related
- Failed the NCLEX-RN? The waiting period, your performance report, and a plan for the retake
- How the NCLEX decides pass or fail: the three stopping rules
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