The prevalence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) is increasing dramatically as the population of patients with diabetes continues to rise. This paper wants to investigate the prevalence and risk factors of DR in China through reviewing the research from Pubmed about population-based epidemic studies. The results of observational studies suggested that the overall prevalence of DR was 1.6%-6.5% in population, 19.9%-43.1% in diabetes and 13.6% in population without diabetes, most of the DR were the mild type, macular edema and vision-threatening were 5.2% and 1.2%. The risk factors for DR were longer duration of diabetes, plasma glucose concentration, concentrations of HbA1c level, higher systolic blood pressure(BP), higher diastolic BP, male gender, rural region, and methods of diabetic treatment and so on. The prevalence of DR which was strongly related to duration of diabetes was higher with the increase of diabetes. DR would be the major leading cause of visual impairment in China, it is very important to prevent DR by early screening and any other methods.