62 217 rice variety samples from all parts of China during recent 20 years were analyzed with respect to high quality rate. The results showed, during the“13th Five-Year Plan” period, high quality rate of rice in China rose rapidly from 27.3% in 2015 to 49.2% in 2020. In the early 21st century, high quality rate of japonica rice was much higher than that of indica rice. However, the gap of high quality rate between indica rice and japonica rice has been narrowing. Chalkiness was the most important quality indicator that limited the high quality rate in the early 21st century. During the“13th Five-Year Plan” period, it had been obviously improved and had higher high quality rate than head rice rate and amylose content, no longer the most important factor to limit high quality rate. Relatively poor performance was observed for head rice rate. Among seven grade indicators, head rice rate possessed lowest high quality rate, becoming the most important quality indicator that limited high quality rate during the “13th Five-Year Plan” period. Therefore, in order to improve the quality of rice in China, it is important to improve head rice rate in the future