Abstract: Rapeseed is an essential oil crop in China，which has a wide planting range，a large area，and high economic value. The growth and development of rapeseed require a large amount of nitrogen. Hence establishing a set of efficient and accurate evaluation criteria for nitrogen efficiency of rapeseed is of great significance for screening and exploring nitrogen efficient genotypes of rapeseed. This paper described the effects of nitrogen on the growth of rapeseed， the concept of nitrogen efficiency and the effective ways to improve it， and compared and analyzed several commonly used evaluation methods of nitrogen efficiency in rapeseed，which provided a theoretical basis for further guidance of rapeseed high-efficiency production of high yield and cultivation of new nitrogen efficient germplasm.

Key words: Brassica napus, nitrogen efficiency, evaluation standard, genotype