NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN 2020 Examination Statistics

(Estimated reading time: 2 minutes)

Written By: Mark Zaspa, RN, NCLEX-Passer, IPASS Success Coach

The NCSBN has released their yearly NCLEX Volume and Pass Rates data for the year 2020. The details are broken down into several categories, such as the percentage of first-time test takers who passed, as well as repeat examinees. Also, it made a distinction between US-educated nurses versus internationally educated ones. The report also included top 5 countries whose locally educated examinees took the NCLEX in 2020.

Overall, first time examinees are more successful in acing their NCLEX compared to repeat testers, both for NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN. Also, students studying in the United States had a higher passing rate than candidates who took their education abroad. With respect to foreign educated candidates, the Philippines had the greatest number of candidates who took the NCLEX in 2020.

There is a total of 252, 967 candidates who took the NCLEX, wherein 72.25% of them passed the examination. Of this number (total volume of examinees), 83.73% are first-timers while 37.74% are repeat testers. US-educated nurse-candidates accounted for the majority of passers with 77.75% (222,389), while 32.27% (30,578) were graduates from abroad.

In terms of internationally educated candidates (both NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN), the Philippines lead the pack with a total of 6,204 test takers. India came in second with 1,485 while Puerto Rico had 1,190 locally educated nurses and PN’s who took NCLEX. Nigerians came in fourth with 496 test takers and Nepal wrapping up the top 5 countries with a total of 429 candidates.