Development of advanced electrocatalysts to drive efficient hydrogen evolution reaction through water splitting is vital in many energy related technologies. Herein the development of nitrogen-doped carbon supported fewer-layer MoSe2 (FL-MoSe2/NC) through calcining the hydrothermal product of the Se and Mo precursors in the presence of ammonium citrate is reported. This FL-MoSe2/NC is highly efficient for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and exhibits a remarkably low onset potential of 15.2 mV, an extremely small overpotential of 74.6 mV (vs. RHE) at 10 mA cm(-2), a greatly reduced Tafel slope of 45.2 mV dec(-1), and a higher exchange current density of 0.266 mA cm(-2). The performance of the FL-MoSe2/NC is much higher than that of most Mo-based HER electrocatalysts reported to date and even comparable to that of other most active non-precious metal based catalysts, suggesting the great potential of using the FL-MoSe2/NC as an efficient catalyst for the HER. The NC is believed to play an important role in the high performance of the FL-MoSe2/NC. It does not only promote a strong interaction between MoSe2 and the NC, but facilitates the formation of MoSe2 with few layers and shorter lattice fringe lengths, which expose more active sites accessible to the HER. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.