The industrial hemp （Cannabis sativa L.） as an important special economic crop， has implemented the development of the whole industrial chain. Its bast fiber is a significant raw material and has been widely used in textiles， papermaking， home furnishings， insulation materials， construction materials， and auto parts and composites. China has stronger academic and applied research experiences in industrial hemp， and the derived textile products are highly competitive in the global market. Due to the increasing yield and quality demand for textile fibers， it is necessary for researchers to breed high-quality， high-yield fiber varieties. The genome-wide association study （GWAS） can reveal the association between phenotype and genotype， thus becoming of interest in gene mining， stacking of multiple elite genes alleles， analyzing the population genetic structure and finally breeding for novel varieties showing high-yield， high-quality， disease resistance， and stress resistance. At present， GWAS is widely used in cotton， rice， corn， wheat and other crops， and increasingly used in industrial hemp and other major hemp fiber crop. Thus， the review summarizes the application of GWAS in industrial hemp and briefly proposes the research focuses that remained yet conducted， in order to provide insights for the application of GWAS technique in industrial hemp.