Nitrogen affects growth and oil content of sunflower, however this effect depend on nitrogen rate and time of application. Therefore this experiment was conducted to determine the effects of nitrogen fertilizer (urea) rates and split application on yield and yield components and quality of sunflower ( Helianthus annuus L.) cv. Euroflor. A field experiment was carried out in College of Agriculture, Shiraz University (Badjgah) during summer of 2009. The experimental design was a factorial based on a randomized complete block design with 3 replications. Five nitrogen rates (0, 50, 100, 150, 200 kilograms N per hectare) were the main plots and four split application of nitrogen fertilizer (T1 “1/3 before planting, 1/3 V4 stage, 1/3 R1stage” , “T2 (1/3 before planting, 1/3 V4 stage, 1/3R5.8stage” , T3 “1/3 before planting, 1/3R2 stage, 1/3 R5.8 stage”, T4 “1/3 V4 stage, 1/3 R1 stage, 1/3 R8 stage”) were the subplots. Stem length, leaf number per plant, leaf area index, leaf dry weight, total dry weight and chlorophyll content were measured during growth period twice in R5.8 stage and after harvest. Head diameter, plant height, number of grain per head, thousand grain weight, grain yield, dry matter yield, seed oil content, seed oil yield and harvest index were determine after harvesting and drying the plant materials. Statistical analysis indicated that there was a significant differences within various rate of nitrogen application. There was no interaction between nitrogen rate and time of application. Nitrogen application increased stem length, leaf number per plant, leaf area index, leaf dry weight, total dry weight, chlorophyll content, head diameter, number of grain per head, thousand grain weight, grain yield, dry matter yield and seed oil yield by 20 percent, 30 percent, 48 percent, 15 percent, 20 percent, 19 percent, 40 percent, 4 percent, 29 percent, 43 percent, 36 percent and 26 percent, respectively. The increases were highest under 200 N kilogram per hectare. However there was no significant difference between 150 and 200 N kilogram per hectare on these traits. Nitrogen application reduced oil content and hollow percentages. But it had not any effect on harvest index. Split application of nitrogen had no significant effect on plant characteristics except for grain yield that was increased under T1 (1/3 before planting, 1/3 V4 stage, 1/3 R1stage) treatment. The results show that split application (1/3 before planting, 1/3 V4 stage, 1/3 R1stage) of 150 kilogram per hectare in comparison to other treatment may be used for sunflower ( Helianthus annuus L.) cv. Euroflor production under similar