The short answer
86.7% of first-time, U.S.-educated NCLEX-RN candidates passed in 2025, down from 91.2% in 2024. Repeat test takers passed at 52.7%, so your first attempt matters far more than your degree path. Two studies link testing soon after graduation with higher pass rates, so test when you're ready, without drifting.
The Short Version
- 86.7% is the first-time, US-educated NCLEX-RN pass rate for all of 2025, down from 91.2% in 2024 (NCSBN Research Brief Vol. 96, June 2026).
- Repeat US-educated candidates passed at 52.7%. Internationally educated first-timers passed at 47.3%.
- The largest gap in any of this data is between a first attempt and a retake, 34 percentage points on the RN and 44.9 on the PN.
- BSN and ADN first-timers finished within 1.5 percentage points of each other, 87.6% against 86.1%.
- Two studies on testing delay point the same way. A 2026 study of 2,998 BSN graduates found pass rates fell from 97.9% at 2 to 4 weeks after graduation to 79.4% past 10 weeks.
This number gets posted every June, and nursing students immediately measure themselves against it. Before you do that, it's worth knowing which students it actually counted.
86.7% Describes One Group
That figure covers one group under one condition: everyone who sat for the NCLEX-RN for the first time, educated inside the United States, across the 2025 calendar year. It's 167,272 passes out of 192,916 candidates.
It's also 4.5 percentage points below the 2024 figure of 91.2% for the same group. A drop that size in a single year is worth noticing, and NCSBN doesn't explain what caused it.
If this is your second attempt, your number is different. Repeat US-educated candidates passed at 52.7% in 2025, more than 30 percentage points lower. Use 52.7%.
Two Studies on Waiting
Here's the part most pass-rate articles skip. Two studies have looked at it, twenty years apart.
Measured From Graduation
The newer of the two, published in 2026, followed 2,998 prelicensure BSN graduates from one nursing program who finished between 2021 and 2024, and sorted them by how long after graduation they sat the exam.
| Weeks from Graduation to Testing | Candidates | Pass Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 2 to 4 | 1,014 | 97.9% |
| 5 to 6 | 884 | 93.8% |
| 7 to 8 | 558 | 90.3% |
| 9 to 10 | 241 | 83.8% |
| More than 10 | 301 | 79.4% |
That's 18.5 percentage points between the earliest group and the latest. The authors describe the trend as a 2.28% decline in pass rate for each additional week of delay.
Read those pass rates carefully. Every one of them sits above the national average, because this is a single school and a strong one. Testing two to four weeks after you graduate does not give you a 97.9% chance of passing, and your own odds are probably lower than any number in this table. Only the pattern carries over: every time the wait got longer, the pass rate fell.
Measured From Eligibility
NCSBN ran the same question twenty years earlier across 421,739 RN candidates, but counted from a different starting point: days between the date a candidate became eligible and the date they tested.
| Days from Eligible to Testing | Pass Rate |
|---|---|
| 0 to 21 | 79.7% |
| 22 to 33 | 80.9% |
| 34 to 54 | 75.2% |
| 55 to 365 | 49.6% |
The PN numbers follow the same shape across 183,540 candidates, dropping from 87.8% in the first 18 days to 60.9% past 47 days. NCSBN's conclusion was that candidates "should test as soon as they are able."
Neither Study Shows Cause
Neither one shows that waiting causes failure, and the Caluya team says so about their own work. Their study was retrospective and descriptive, with no control for study habits, academic performance, preparation method, anxiety, or whether someone was working. Any of those could push a person both to delay and to score lower, which would make the waiting a sign of the problem rather than the actual problem.
Three more things worth noting:
- The recent study is one school. Single institution, BSN only, southern California. It covers the Next Generation format, which the NCSBN study predates by nearly twenty years, but one program's graduates don't represent the country.
- Graduation year is tangled up in it. Their 2021 and 2022 graduates passed at 89% and 87%, shaped by COVID disruption, while 2023 and 2024 reached 96% and 95% after the exam changed.
- The NCSBN data is old and starts counting later. It runs 2003 through 2005 and measures from your eligibility date, not your graduation date. Your board approval is what starts that count.
The direction survives all of that: two datasets, two different starting points, the same result. Act on the direction. Don't read it as a prediction about your success.
Early Against Ready
Testing early and testing ready are two different instructions, and nobody says out loud that they can conflict.
"Test as soon as you are able" and "test when your preparation peaks" are the same instruction for most people, because for most people readiness peaks right around the time the board approves them. School is fresh, the content is loaded, and the review has momentum. That window is where the pass rates are highest.
They stop being the same instruction when something real is in the way. If you have a documented weak area and an active plan to fix it, or you took a readiness predictor and scored poorly, a few more focused weeks is a defensible decision. The research doesn't argue against deliberate preparation. It argues against drift, meaning the weeks that pass because scheduling felt hard, or because testing felt scary, or because nobody set a date.
A useful test: can you name what will be different on the later date? If you can, that's a plan. If you can't, you're picking a later date without a reason. Those are the weeks where the pass rates fell in both tables.
BSN Against ADN
BSN first-timers passed at 87.6%. ADN first-timers passed at 86.1%. That's 1.5 percentage points.
If a program has implied your degree path is doing heavy lifting on this exam, the 2025 data doesn't support it. The large gap in this dataset sits between a first attempt and a repeat, not between degrees.
Same Pattern on PN
NCLEX-PN first-time US-educated candidates passed at 86.6%, almost identical to the RN first-time rate. PN repeat candidates passed at 41.7%.
If you're measuring yourself against a number, use the one for your exam and your attempt.
Gaps That Matter Most
Five gaps run through this article. Lining them up by size tells you where to put your effort, and it isn't where most students put it.
| What differs | Gap, in percentage points | Is it yours to change? |
|---|---|---|
| First attempt against a retake, PN | 44.9 | Yes, while it's still your first |
| Where you trained, first-timers | 39.4 | No |
| First attempt against a retake, RN | 34.0 | Yes, while it's still your first |
| Testing 2 to 4 weeks after graduation against past 10 | 18.5 | Yes |
| BSN against ADN, first-timers | 1.5 | Already decided |
Two things fall out of that.
Your first attempt is worth more than everything else combined. Nothing else you control comes close. Every week of preparation you're deciding whether to spend belongs to attempt number one, because attempt number two starts you in a much harder population.
Timing is the second lever, and it's the only other one in your hands. It matters less than your attempt number and more than anything else on that list, and unlike your degree or the calendar, you pick the date.
So the whole thing reduces to two sentences:
- Prepare like the first attempt is the only one you get, because statistically it's the best one you'll ever have.
- Take it while the material is still fresh, unless you can name exactly what will be different if you wait.
One caution on that table. These gaps come from different sources measured different ways. Attempt, degree, and training location are national 2025 NCSBN figures. The timing figure is one nursing school's graduates between 2021 and 2024. Compare the sizes, not the decimal places.
FAQ
What was the 2025 NCLEX-RN pass rate?
86.7% for first-time, US-educated candidates, down from 91.2% in 2024, per NCSBN's 2025 NCLEX Examination Statistics. That figure covers 192,916 candidates, 167,272 of whom passed. It excludes repeat test-takers, who passed at 52.7%, and internationally educated first-timers, who passed at 47.3%.
Does waiting to take the NCLEX lower my chances?
Two studies say the same thing. A 2026 study of 2,998 BSN graduates found pass rates fell from 97.9% at 2 to 4 weeks after graduation to 79.4% past 10 weeks. Older NCSBN data shows the same shape. Both are observational, so treat it as a reason not to drift.
Is 86.7% my number if I'm retesting?
No. Repeat US-educated candidates passed at 52.7% in 2025, more than 30 percentage points below the first-time rate. Planning your preparation against the headline figure instead of the repeat rate is a common way a second attempt turns into a third.
Does a BSN give me an advantage on pass rates?
A small one. BSN first-timers passed at 87.6% against 86.1% for ADN first-timers in 2025, a difference of 1.5 percentage points. The much larger gap in this data sits between a first attempt and a repeat attempt, which are more than 30 percentage points apart, so attempt number matters far more than degree path.
How does the NCLEX-PN compare?
PN first-time US-educated candidates passed at 86.6%, almost identical to the RN first-time rate of 86.7%. PN repeat candidates passed at 41.7%, even lower than the RN repeat rate of 52.7%, so the same first-attempt advantage appears on both exams and is slightly sharper on the PN.
Sources
- 2025 pass rates, all figures. NCSBN, 2025 NCLEX Examination Statistics, Research Brief Volume 96, published June 2026, checked 3 September 2026. The first-time US-educated RN group covers 192,916 candidates, 167,272 of whom passed.
- The 91.2% comparison. NCSBN, 2024 edition, Research Brief Volume 94, published July 2025.
- Testing delay, recent. Caluya J Jr., Thomas S, Alferez D, Barrett S. "Impact of Testing Delay on First-Attempt NCLEX-RN Success for Prelicensure Nursing Graduates." Nursing Education Perspectives, National League for Nursing, 2026. doi: 10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000001553. Retrospective cohort, 2,998 prelicensure BSN graduates from one southern California program completing between 2021 and 2024, measured in weeks from program completion to first attempt.
- Testing delay, national. NCSBN, The NCLEX Delay Pass Rate Study, published 2007, covering 421,739 RN and 183,540 PN candidates who tested between 2003 and 2005. Measured in days between the eligibility date and the test date.
Notes. These are annual pass rates for a defined group, meaning what actually happened to that group, not any individual's probability of passing. A difference between two groups or two years does not by itself explain what caused the difference. Both delay studies are observational, and candidates who wait may differ from candidates who don't in ways neither could measure. The recent one covers a single institution and its authors call for multisite, multivariate work before anyone treats the relationship as settled.
