How Many Ohio Nurses Pass the NCLEX on the First Try? (2026 Data)
We analyzed the licensure history of every registered nurse in the Ohio eLicense system. Here is what it says about how often nurses pass on the first attempt.
August 22, 2026 · 7 min read · Original analysis by OhioLicenseCheck
90.2%
of licensed Ohio RNs had no prior failed application (first-attempt licensure)
One of the most common questions nursing students ask is simple: how many people actually pass the NCLEX the first time? National bodies publish an aggregate figure, but very little is available at the state level, and almost nothing that lets you see the pattern across an entire state’s workforce.
Because OhioLicenseCheck maintains a full copy of the Ohio eLicense dataset — including the application records the Ohio Board of Nursing publishes alongside issued licenses — we can measure it directly for Ohio. This report is an original analysis of that data.
The headline numbers
403,844
licensed Ohio RNs analyzed
90.2%
first-attempt licensure (no prior failed application)
9.8%
had one or more unsuccessful applications first
Among licensed practical nurses (LPNs), the first-attempt rate is slightly higher — 92.4% of 135,204 licensed LPNs were licensed with no prior failed application. That LPN figure being a little higher than RNs is consistent with the shorter, more focused practical-nursing curriculum.
How we measured it
The Ohio Board of Nursing publishes two kinds of records: issued licenses, and applications that did not result in a license. In the raw data, an application that never became a license carries a number beginning with the prefix "APP". A person who holds an issued RN license today and has no such prior "APP" record was, by this measure, licensed on their first application. A person who has one or more "APP" records before their issued license needed more than one attempt.
We grouped every record by person and license type across the whole dataset, then computed, for each licensed nurse, whether any earlier unsuccessful application existed. Across 403,844 licensed RNs, 90.2% had none.
Important caveats
- This is an approximation of exam attempts, not an official NCLEX pass-rate statistic. It measures licensure applications, which correlate with — but are not identical to — exam sittings.
- An unsuccessful application can reflect reasons other than a failed exam (an incomplete file, a withdrawn application, or an administrative lapse).
- It covers nurses currently in the Ohio system; nurses who never became licensed in Ohio are not counted.
- For the official, methodologically strict figure, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) publishes NCLEX pass rates each quarter; Ohio’s ~90% first-attempt rate here sits right in line with the national US-educated first-time pass rate.
Why it matters
For prospective nurses, the takeaway is encouraging: the large majority of people who become licensed in Ohio did so on their first application. For employers and researchers, the ability to see licensure patterns at population scale — rather than one record at a time — is exactly the kind of question a complete, structured dataset can answer.
You can look at any individual’s attempt history yourself, by name, using our free exam-attempts tool.
Methodology
Computed by OhioLicenseCheck from the complete Ohio eLicense dataset (issued licenses plus published application records), grouped by person and license type. Figures as of August 2026. "First-attempt licensure" = a licensed nurse with no prior unsuccessful (APP-prefixed) application. This is an approximation of exam-attempt history, not an official NCLEX statistic.
Check exam attempts by name
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