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First-time NCLEX-RN pass rates fell from 91.2 percent in 2024 to 86.7 percent in 2025, then rose year over year in the second quarter of 2026.
By The ngnsimulation team
NCLEX pass rates 2024 vs 2025 vs 2026 is the comparison every dean, program director and final-year student is making this autumn, and it is worth making from the primary tables rather than from a headline. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing publishes an annual research brief and quarterly reports broken down by candidate type, education country and jurisdiction. The figures below come from those documents, cited at the foot of this page.
The number a nursing program is judged on is the first-time pass rate of candidates educated in the United States. It excludes repeat attempts and internationally educated candidates, both of which pass at much lower rates and would otherwise pull the headline down.
| Year | First-time US-educated RN | RN candidates | First-time US-educated PN | PN candidates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 91.2% | 186,760 | 88.4% | 50,570 |
| 2025 | 86.7% | 192,916 | 86.6% | 54,818 |
| 2026, January to June | 88.6% | 125,366 | 85.9% | 27,896 |
The 2025 decline on the RN side was 4.5 percentage points on a larger candidate pool, which means the number of first-time candidates who did not pass rose from 16,504 to 25,644, the difference between candidates tested and candidates passed in each year's table. The PN decline was smaller, 1.8 points, on a pool that grew by more than 4,000.
Annual rates hide the pattern that matters for interpretation. NCSBN reports each year by quarter, and the two full years line up closely.
| Quarter | 2024 RN first-time | 2025 RN first-time | 2026 RN first-time |
|---|---|---|---|
| January to March | 94.2% | 88.4% | 86.8% |
| April to June | 92.7% | 89.1% | 90.1% |
| July to September | 89.2% | 84.0% | not yet published |
| October to December | 82.2% | 81.2% | not yet published |
Three things are visible in that table. First, the rate falls through every year, with the fourth quarter roughly ten points below the first. Second, the fourth quarter also has the smallest candidate pool by a wide margin: 17,700 first-time RN candidates in the last quarter of 2024 against 66,464 in the second quarter, and 20,128 against 68,091 in 2025. The tables do not say who those candidates are, only that they are a smaller and differently composed group from the spring cohort. Third, the second quarter of 2026 is the first quarter since the start of 2024 in which the rate rose against the same quarter of the previous year. One quarter is not a trend, but it is the first data point in the other direction.
Two documents carry the numbers. The annual research brief, published the following summer, breaks the year down by candidate type, education country, degree type and jurisdiction, and it is the document a program's annual figure is drawn from. The quarterly reports, distributed to boards of nursing and published by several of them, give the same first-time figures for each completed quarter and are the only source for the current year until the brief appears. The 2025 brief was published in June 2026; the 2026 brief will not exist until mid-2027, so for the next nine months the quarterly reports are the record.
Two conventions matter when reading either. The pass rate is the percentage of candidates delivered an examination who passed it in that period, so a candidate who fails in March and passes in May appears in both quarters, once as a first-time failure and once as a repeat pass. And the education country is where the candidate was educated, not where they are seeking licensure, which is why a Canadian-educated nurse sitting the examination for a US licence is reported among internationally educated candidates.
The all-candidate pass rate is the figure most often quoted out of context, and it is much lower than the program figure because of who else sits the examination.
| Candidate group, NCLEX-RN 2025 | Pass rate | Candidates |
|---|---|---|
| First-time, US-educated | 86.7% | 192,916 |
| Repeat, US-educated | 52.7% | 42,513 |
| First-time, internationally educated | 47.3% | 52,827 |
| All candidates | 69.1% | 328,443 |
The repeat rate is the one candidates should read closely. In 2024 it was 50.9 percent on 32,030 candidates; in 2025 it was 52.7 percent on 42,513. The repeat pool grew by a third because more first-time candidates failed, and a repeat attempt passes just over half the time. The cost of the first attempt is not the fee. It is the halving of the odds on the second.
NCSBN publishes counts and percentages. It does not publish an analysis of why 2025 fell, and the brief for 2025 offers none. Several explanations circulate, and the data can be used to test them rather than to assert them.
Anyone offering a single cause for the 2025 figure is going beyond the published evidence. What the tables support is narrower: the drop was broad, it affected every quarter, and the first sign of recovery is one quarter old.
Boards of nursing evaluate programs on the annual first-time rate of their own graduates, and a program's figure is far noisier than the national one. A cohort of forty candidates moves five points when two more of them fail. Three habits keep the reading honest.
The figures are national averages and say nothing about any individual, but two of them are directly actionable. The first-time rate for US-educated candidates is still above 85 percent, so the base rate favours a prepared candidate. The repeat rate is near 50 percent, so the preparation that matters is the preparation before the first attempt. Testing soon after graduation, while the material is current, is the single scheduling decision the quarterly tables most clearly support. What changed in the current test plan is set out at nclex 2026 test plan what changed, a six-week structure for the run-up is at build an adaptive six week nclex plan, and the role across jurisdictions is at registered nurse.
When a program publishes a pass rate, four questions establish whether it is comparable to the figures above. Is it first-time only, or does it include repeats? Is it US-educated graduates of that program, or all candidates the program has touched? Is it a calendar year, a quarter, or a cohort? And how many candidates does it rest on? A 100 percent rate on eleven candidates and an 84 percent rate on four hundred are not in competition, and the second may be the more reliable program.
Try a real clinical-judgment question and see the reasoning coached step by step.