AIM: To discover the status of cataract surgery in Xinjiang, and explore the existing problems and provide reasonable development ideas for the future.

METHODS: The data were collected by questionnaire survey from all ophthalmology institutions which were registered in Xinjiang region, then database was built up with Excel2003, and analyzed with SPSS 16.0.

RESULTS: There were 107 ophthalmology institutions in the Xinjiang region in 2010, and 43580 cases of eye surgeries, among them cataract surgery patients were 20230(46.59%), the average growth rate of Xinjiang cataract surgery rate was obviously higher than the national average.

CONCLUSION: Prevention of blindness in Xinjiang has achieved remarkable results, the number of cataract surgeries done per million population in 2010 reached 930.9, but with the "VISION 2020" action still lags far behind, especially cataract surgery rate is still low, the county-level medical institutions are not able to fully play a role; we should vigorously promote the economic practicality of cataract surgery to increase ophthalmic resources in primary health care sector.