Currently, China has approximately four million hectares of intensively cultivated plastic-shed vegetable production, i.e., with excessive nitrogen (N) fertilization and high irrigation. Plastic-shed vegetable production has helped meet the rapidly increasing consumer demand for fresh vegetables while improving heat, light, and land utilization efficiencies, resulting in very high vegetable yield. We collected all studies from the 1980s to 2020 on N₂O emissions and N fertilization associated with plastic-shed vegetable production at 40 field sites in China. Fertilizer N utilization efficiencies and N₂O emissions that were affected by fertilizer N rate and type, irrigation, growth duration, nitrification inhibitors, and soil properties were systematically examined. The results revealed that fertilizer N efficiencies in plastic-shed vegetable production significantly decreased with increasing N fertilization rate. The average N recovery efficiency (RE_N) and apparent N use efficiency (ANUE) were 6.8 % and 33 %, respectively; much lower than those of cereal crop production in the same region. In fruit and leafy vegetable production, N₂O emissions exhibited an exponential and linear relationship with the fertilizer N rate, respectively, and the average contributions of fertilizer N to N₂O emissions were 68 % and 70 %, respectively. Compared with synthetic N fertilizer or manure alone, combination of synthetic fertilizer with animal manure significantly increased the N₂O emissions and emission factors (EFs) at high N fertilization rates (>800 kg N ha⁻¹ season⁻¹), but there were no significant differences among fertilizer types at N rate <800 kg N ha⁻¹ season⁻¹. Nitrification inhibitors reduced N₂O emissions by 24.0 % (95 % confidence intervals [CI]: 19.2 %–28.9 %), and water-saving irrigation is the other effective measure to reduce emissions. Plastic-shed soils with neutral pH, high organic carbon content (> 30 g kg⁻¹), growth period of >100 d, and higher irrigation increased the responses of N₂O emission to N fertilization. As plastic-shed soils are continuously and intensively farmed, soil properties will be negatively affected, and should be considered together with fertilization and irrigation to maintain high vegetable yield and low N₂O emissions. Our study highlighted that the exponential relationship was more appropriate to predict the N₂O emissions in plastic-shed vegetable production, and our findings help to optimize fertilizer N input with consideration of crop yield and greenhouse gas emission.