JLPT Pass Rate Statistics

What are the chances of a JLPT taker?

The data below are from the JLPT official website.

December data last year was a little strange. Overseas test takers (except for N5 and N4) did better than Japan-located test takers (given that they read and hear Japanese everyday).

For July 2014, only N2 and N3 overseas takers did better than Japan-located takers.

Data of the test in 2013 (December)

	Level	N1	N2	N3	N4	N5	Total
Japan	Applicants	31,691	22,859	12,436	6,963	1,519	75,468
	Examinees※	28,929	21,211	11,501	6,430	1,392	69,463
	Certified	10,031	8,410	3,911	2,871	983	26,206
	Percentage Certified(%)	34.7%	39.6%	34.0%	44.7%	70.6%	37.7%
Overseas	Applicants	81,794	73,935	48,875	38,078	37,313	279,995
	Examinees※	71,490	64,989	41,129	32,752	31,922	242,282
	Certified	25,524	28,148	17,901	14,290	18,248	104,111
	Percentage Certified(%)	35.7%	43.3%	43.5%	43.6%	57.2%	43.0%
Japan・Overseas Total	Applicants	113,485	96,794	61,311	45,041	38,832	355,463
	Examinees※	100,419	86,200	52,630	39,182	33,314	311,745
	Certified	35,555	36,558	21,812	17,161	19,231	130,317
	Percentage Certified(%)	35.4%	42.4%	41.4%	43.8%	57.7%	41.8%

Data of the test in 2014 (July)

	Level	N1	N2	N3	N4	N5	Total
Japan	Applicants	26,277	22,226	14,842	6,643	1,318	71,306
	Examinees※	24,395	20,855	13,749	6,208	1,175	66,382
	Certified	9,513	9,359	4,362	3,028	885	27,147
	Percentage Certified(%)	39.0%	44.9%	31.7%	48.8%	75.3%	40.9%
Overseas	Applicants	73,782	73,829	42,746	27,271	23,154	240,782
	Examinees※	64,409	64,699	35,251	22,944	19,658	206,961
	Certified	21,108	29,313	15,535	10,657	10,726	87,339
	Percentage Certified(%)	32.8%	45.3%	44.1%	46.4%	54.6%	42.2%
Japan・Overseas Total	Applicants	100,059	96,055	57,588	33,914	24,472	312,088
	Examinees※	88,804	85,554	49,000	29,152	20,833	273,343
	Certified	30,621	38,672	19,897	13,685	11,611	114,486
	Percentage Certified(%)	34.5%	45.2%	40.6%	46.9%	55.7%	41.9%

Meanwhile, From Wikipedia, these are the summarized data from year 2007 onwards:

Year	Level	JLPT in Japan			JLPT overseas
		Applicants	Examinees	Certified (%)	Applicants	Examinees	Certified (%)
2007[25]	1 kyū	47,761	42,923	14,338 (33.4%)	135,616	110,937	28,550 (25.7%)
	2 kyū	34,782	31,805	11,884 (37.4%)	186,226	152,198	40,975 (26.9%)
	3 kyū	16,808	15,710	8,664 (55.1%)	143,252	113,526	53,806 (47.4%)
	4 kyū	3,908	3,383	2,332 (68.9%)	64,127	53,476	27,767 (51.9%)
2008[26]	1 kyū	52,992	46,953	18,454 (39.3%)	138,131	116,271	38,988 (33.5%)
	2 kyū	41,924	38,040	16,289 (42.8%)	187,482	157,142	58,124 (37.0%)
	3 kyū	22,016	20,351	13,304 (65.4%)	147,435	120,569	69,605 (57.7%)
	4 kyū	4,524	3,903	2,765 (70.8%)	65,877	55,828	31,227 (55.9%)
2009-1[27]	1 kyū	29,274	26,578	11,738 (44.2%)	103,349	87,104	28,230 (32.4%)
	2 kyū	26,437	24,793	9,279 (37.4%)	130,753	110,266	27,543 (25.0%)
2009-2[28]	1 kyū	46,648	41,998	12,293 (29.3%)	137,708	114,725	26,427 (23.0%)
	2 kyū	36,528	33,807	12,462 (36.9%)	176,628	147,328	41,488 (28.2%)
	3 kyū	17,703	16,675	9,360 (56.1%)	131,733	108,867	51,903 (47.7%)
	4 kyū	3,212	2,932	2,155 (73.5%)	61,995	53,041	29,529 (55.7%)
2010-1[29]	N1	26,225	23,694	9,651 (40.7%)	73,863	62,938	19,402 (30.8%)
	N2	24,738	23,126	13,768 (59.5%)	87,889	74,874	32,530 (43.4%)
	N3	6,947	6,280	3,051 (48.6%)	42,227	32,100	12,574 (39.2%)
2010-2[30]	N1	40,041	36,810	12,774 (34.7%)	100,689	87,763	25,781 (29.4%)
	N2	27,947	26,020	11,679 (44.9%)	106,402	91,996	30,460 (33.1%)
	N3	8,363	7,665	3,501 (44.9%)	56,236	45,906	18,883 (41.1%)
	N4	7,764	7,317	3,716 (50.8%)	48,613	41,484	19,235 (46.4%)
	N5	2,065	1,870	1,458 (78.0%)	43,676	38,128	22,846 (59.9%)
2011-1[31]	N1	24,716	22,782	6,546 (28.7%)	89,744	76,991	20,519 (26.7%)
	N2	19,203	17,957	9,057 (50.4%)	92,015	79,716	30,216 (37.9%)
	N3	5,642	5,211	2,511 (48.2%)	36,841	29,507	13,230 (44.8%)
	N4	3,643	3,358	1,431 (42.6%)	19,010	15,453	5,802 (37.5%)
	N5	716	649	464 (71.5%)	12,346	10,510	6,108 (58.1%)
2011-2[32]	N1	36,426	33,460	11,849 (35.4%)	100,873	88,514	27,452 (31.0%)
	N2	22,875	21,269	8,695 (40.8%)	94,538	82,944	28,679 (34.6%)
	N3	8,149	7,580	3,073 (40.5%)	49,917	41,665	16,576 (39.8%)
	N4	7,008	6,596	3,083 (46.7%)	38,888	33,402	14,722 (44.1%)
	N5	1,603	1,481	1,045 (70.6%)	33,245	29,159	16,986 (58.3%)
2012-1[33]	N1	26,051	24,142	11,074 (45.9%)	78,905	69,082	23,789 (34.4%)
	N2	20,041	18,843	9,683 (51.4%)	78,553	69,418	29,191 (42.1%)
	N3	7,317	6,878	3,232(47.0%)	38,650	31,941	14,391 (45.1%)
	N4	5,437	5,116	2,388 (46.7%)	22,431	18,590	8,489 (45.7%)
	N5	1,004	925	679 (73.4%)	16,361	13,911	8,129 (58.4%)
2012-2[34]	N1	32,917	30,296	7,998 (26.4%)	86,004	75,250	17,411 (23.1%)
	N2	21,139	19,612	7,919 (40.4%)	79,513	69,790	25,617 (36.7%)
	N3	10,085	9,422	2,668(28.3%)	47,301	39,763	12,722 (32.0%)
	N4	6,961	6,562	2,371 (36.1%)	36,799	31,620	11,783 (37.3%)
	N5	1,416	1,307	945 (72.3%)	34,178	29,700	16,225 (54.6%)