Abstract: With continuous increase of circuit number and service life, condition assessment and life prediction of distribution XLPE cables have become the focus of the industry.In the paper, an operation-maintenance information scoring table was designed, which included historical load, fault record, environmental condition, and other information closely related to cable line state, to comprehensively reflect actual operating characteristics of distribution cable lines.Then, based on the 53 sets of operation and test data collected, test indicators for cable life assessment were determined by using statistical methods.After that, a life assessment system of distribution XLPE cables was established based on a scoring program, which combined cable operation-maintenance information with test indicators.The syste mutilized an improved analytic hierarchy process to determine the weights of each index, which enhanced the objectivity.Test indicators were mainly from the on site test projects, aiming to balance between evaluation effectiveness and engineering practicability.Besides, usability of the system with missing items was realized. Finally, the assessment system was well verified by several retired XLPE cable lines.Results showed that proposed assessment system could accurately reflect actual operating conditions of cables and has high engineering application capability.