Application of nitrogen fertilizer is an important approach to ensurance of food security in China. In recent years a large volume of nitrogen fertilizer applied has, though, increased crop yields significantly, it has also at the same time brought about a series of serious environmental problems. So, it is of great importance to get to know well the current situation of nitrogen use efficiency in China, to how to coordinate agricultural benefit with environmental impacts of the use of nitrogen fertilizer in formulating a reasonable fertilization strategy. Therefore, on the basis of the researches accomplished in the 1980s and 2001—2005, nitrogen use efficiencies in the resent 10 years of major grain crops in China were analyzed in this research. The literature research method was used to retrieve all the papers (in Chinese) related to the subject of crop response to nitrogen fertilizer application from the CNKI and VIP databases published after 2004. Results show that currently the basic yields of the three major grain crops without nitrogen fertilization could reach up to 67.9%~75.9% of the maximum yields of the crops with nitrogen fertilization. Yield response of rice, wheat and maize to nitrogen fertilizer application might reach up to 43.0%, 28.2% and 25.8%, respectively. Based on the regression equation of nitrogen application rates and relative yields, the nitrogen application rate for maximum yield of rice, wheat and maize was 246, 250 and 274 kghm^-2, respectively. In the recent 10 years, both the apparent recovery rate (REN) and agronomic efficiency of applied nitrogen(AEN) somewhat increased, reaching up to 39.0%, 34.8% and 29.1%, and 12.7, 9.2 and 11.1 kgkg^-1, respectively, for rice, wheat and maize. Compared with the statistics of the period (2001—2005), REN increased by 6.8%, almost reaching 35% of the level in the 1980s. The relationship between nitrogen application rate and partial factor productivity (PFPN) of nitrogen fertilizer could be well described with the power exponent equation for all the three major crops, with R² for rice, wheat and maize being 0.8489, 0.6575 and 0.7917, respectively. Currently, PFPN is an appropriate index for use in evaluating nitrogen fertilizer utilization efficiency. Taking into overall account target yieldsand nitrogen use efficiencies of the three major grain crops, it is held that 180~240 kghm-2is the proper N application rate for all the three crops in China today, and quite in consistence with the recommendation in the “Fertilizer Formulas and Fertilization Recommendations for Wheat, Maize and Rice in their Major Production Regions” promulgatedand distributed by the Ministry of Agriculture of China.