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This work presents a collisional-radiative model for atomic nitrogen. The model incorporates energy levels extrapolated up to the ionic asymptote and state-of-the-art kinetic data for electron-impact excitation and ionization. The effective rate coefficient k_eff^rec for three-body ion recombination N⁺ + 2 e⁻ → N + e⁻ is calculated using three approaches: time-dependent, quasi-steady-state (QSS), and diffusion approximation. The first two methods yield consistent results across the 300–30,000 K range and agree with the diffusion approach, which serves as a reference for the 300–2000 K range. An extensive comparison of all literature data spanning 300–30,000 K is presented in order to compare and assess the various models. Our global rate coefficients show good agreement with the general trend emerging from the data set, thereby confirming the validity of the selected microscopic rate coefficients.