Abstract: Drought is the most serious meteorological disaster in the world with the heaviest economic loss and the widest range, affecting social economy and people's lives. The impacts of drought are diverse, affecting agriculture, food security, water conservancy and power generation, industry, human and animal health, and so on. In recent decades, drought events occur frequently in China. Coupled with the rapid economic development and population growth, the adverse impact of drought on society and the harm to people's living environment are becoming more and more serious. Therefore, it is of great significance to discuss the global research progress of drought indices for drought research, prevention and drought relief in China. The research on meteorological drought index, agricultural drought index, hydrological drought index, remote sensing drought index and comprehensive drought index in the world are investigated systematically, especially in Europe and the United States, including the source of each drought index, the input parameters for calculation, the ease of use, advantages, disadvantages, and the global use. The progress of drought research in China is also systematically introduced, including some new drought indices or improved drought indices proposed according to the research on the local drought evolution characteristics and risks, especially a series of new industrial or national standards on drought indexes developed. The main problems in drought research is also discussed, including the lack of applicability of drought index, the lack of research on new mechanism-based drought monitoring index and the lack of research on drought prediction and early warning. Therefore, strengthening the research on drought mechanism, carrying out quantitative assessment of drought monitoring and strengthening the application of numerical models in drought prediction and early warning are the key and difficult points of future research. Drought range, degree and trend prediction are of great significance for the selection of national disaster prevention and mitigation measures. Providing drought prediction and early warning information more than one month in advance can provide sufficient time for taking disaster prevention and mitigation measures. Therefore, it is particularly important to study the simulation ability of numerical models to different regions and strengthen the application of numerical models to drought prediction and early warning.