Abstract: Regarding the shortage of locally suitable varieties and excellent sorghum germplasm resources in Jiangsu''s sorghum industry, the genetic variation level of 400 sorghum germplasm (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) resources from local and global used as experimental materials was comprehensively analyzed in northern Jiangsu by using the Shannon-Weaver diversity index, correlation analysis, cluster analysis and principal component analysis. The results showed that these sorghum germplasm resources had rich genetic diversity. Among the qualitative traits, the genetic diversity indices (H′) of coleoptile color, Leaf color of seedling, medium vein color, panicle type, panicle type, glume color, grain color, tillering and grain covering were 1.0366, 0.2235, 0.6631, 1.3980, 0.9619, 1.7641, 1.7039, 1.0631 and 0.9908 respectively. While, the H′ values of quantitative traits such as period of duration, plant height, stem diameter, main panicle length, peduncle length, grain weight per spike, thousand-grain weight, glume seed percentage, and endosperm corneous were all relatively higher than qualitative traits, which were 2.048, 1.925, 2.047, 1.982, 2.053, 2.031, 2.069, 1.437, and 1.927, respectively. The results of correlation analysis showed that the plant height was significantly positively correlated with the period of duration, panicle length, peduncle length, grain weight per spike, glume seed percentage, and significantly negatively correlated with thousand-grain weight. grain weight per spike was significantly positively correlated with period of duration and thousand-grain weight. Panicle length was significantly positively correlated with peduncle length and glume seed percentage, and significantly negatively correlated with thousand-grain weight. By cluster analysis，these tested sorghum germplasms could be grouped into 3 clusters when the Euclidean distance was 15. Cluster I with the characteristics of high plant, smaller panicle and lower thousand-grain weight, can be developed for energy crops; Cluster II with the characteristics of longer panicle length and peduncle length, can be used as germplasm materials for dual-purpose grain and forage breeding; Cluster III with the characteristics of dwarf, early maturity and large panicle can be used as basic source for germplasm enhancement and breeding of grain sorghum. The principal component analysis of quantitative traits showed that the cumulative contribution rate of four principal component factors to phenotypic variation reached 85.153%, of which the contributing rate of first principal component was 33.209%，mainly related to panicle length and peduncle length，while the contribution rate of the second principal component was 25.189%，mainly related to the grain weight per spike，and the third one was 15.427% contributed by the thousand-grain weight. The fourth was 11.328%，mainly contributed by period of duration, plant height, stem diameter and endosperm corneous. From the experimental germplasm, 8 excellent resources with shorter period of duration, shorter plant height and loose panicle type were selected, which could be used for sorghum breeding in Jiangsu province.