The title complex mol-ecule, [Zn(2)(C(7)H(3)NO(5))(2)(H(2)O)(6)], is a centrosymmetric dimer containing two zinc(II) cations with distorted octa-hedral geometries provided by the O atoms of three water mol-ecules and the two bridging bidentate 5-nitro-salicylate ligands. The separation between the metal centres in the dimer is 3.1790 (11) Å. The crystal structure is stabilized by O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, one of which intra-dimeric, linking the dimers into a three-dimensional network.