Abstract: Human activities are increasingly affecting sustainable development.Therefore,the study of ecological carrying capacity has been attracted more and more attention.In this paper,we summarize the evolution of the concept of ecological carrying capacity and introduce the main research methods of ecological carrying capacity including primary productivity method (NPP),ecological footprint method,energy value ecological footprint method,ecosystem-service-based method,carbon and oxygen balance method,state space method,the comprehensive evaluation method and the model method.The advantages and disadvantages of the above-mentioned methods are reviewed separately.At last,the shortcomings of current ecological carrying capacity researches and its future possible development directions are discussed.