We developed a 5 km annual nitrogen (N) fertilizer use dataset in China, covering the period from 1952 to 2018. We found that previous FAO-data-based N fertilizer products overestimated the N use in low, but underestimated in high, cropland coverage areas in China. The new dataset has improved the spatial distribution and corrected the existing biases, which is beneficial for biogeochemical cycle simulations in China, such as the assessment of greenhouse gas emissions and food production.