Information from 846 N₂O emission measurements in agricultural fields and 99 measurements for NO emissions was used to describe the influence of various factors regulating emissions from mineral soils in models for calculating global N₂O and NO emissions. Only those factors having a significant influence on N₂O and NO emissions were included in the models. For N₂O these were (1) environmental factors (climate, soil organic C content, soil texture, drainage and soil pH); (2) management-related factors (N application rate per fertilizer type, type of crop, with major differences between grass, legumes and other annual crops); and (3) factors related to the measurements (length of measurement period and frequency of measurements). The most important controls on NO emission include the N application rate per fertilizer type, soil organic-C content and soil drainage. Calculated global annual N₂O-N and NO-N emissions from fertilized agricultural fields amount to 2.8 and 1.6 Mtonne, respectively. The global mean fertilizer-induced emissions for N₂O and NO amount to 0.9% and 0.7%, respectively, of the N applied. These overall results account for the spatial variability of the main N₂O and NO emission controls on the landscape scale.