To construct the newly valuable nomogram which can compare the predictive performance with American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system in bladder transitional cell carcinoma (BTCC). BTCC patients were screened (2004-2015) from the SEER database. The nomogram incorporating lymph node ratio was constructed to evaluate individualized cancer-specific survival. The C-index of the nomogram for predicting cancer-specific survival was 0.743 (95% CI: 0.720-0.766), which was higher than C-index of the AJCC staging system. Lymph node ratio can be a reliable prognostic indicator for BTCC. The proposed nomogram showed more satisfactory predictive accuracy and wider applicability than current AJCC staging system in individualized prediction of BTCC patients.