The invention relates to a nitride enhanced copper-based electrical contact composite material, which comprises the following components in percentage by weight: 0.5 to 4 percent by nitride, 0.5 to 4 percent of bismuth, 0.1 to 0.6 percent of rare earth yttrium, 0.5 to 2.5 percent of yttrium oxide, and the rest is copper and other unavoidable impurities, wherein the nitride is titanium nitride or aluminum nitride. The material provided by the invention is made by a preparation method comprising the steps of preparing powder by atomization, proportioning, mixing and vacuum hot pressed sintering. The composite material takes copper as a base body, the main raw materials are rich in resources, the nitride is distributed in the copper base material uniformly and dispersedly in an enhanced phase mode, and the fineness degree of an internal organizational structure of the material is improved. The composite material not only has good electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, welding resistance and arc ablation resistance, but also is excellent in mechanical property and abrasion resistance, can meet basic requirements of workpieces such as an electrical contact and the like for materials, and can be applied to low-voltage electrical apparatuses such as medium and low electrical-load power switches, relays, DC contactors, air switches and the like. Compared with a silver-based electrical contact material, the nitride enhanced copper-based electrical contact composite material is more advantageous in price-to-performance ratio.