The Department of Sociology of Peking University was founded in 1982. After 20 years of construction, the Department of Sociology has developed into an institution containing a number of disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, demography, social work and social policy, and more than 20 sub-fields and research directions. There are nine centers include: The Center for Sociological Research and Development of China, The China Social Work Research Center, The Center of Social Science Survey at Peking University, Research Center for Social Theory at Peking University, Research Center for Chinese Workers, Anthropology and Folklore Research Center of Peking University, Center for Oral History Research of Peking University, and the Religion and Social Research Center of Peking University. In August 2007, the Sociology Program at Peking University was identified as a national first class key program by the Ministry of Education; and the Department of Sociology has been placed among 18 key nationally ranked departments in Peking University.

During the last two decades, the Department of Sociology of Peking University has expanded its faculty steadily and it has constantly improved its structures in teaching, research and social services. The Department now has 37 full-time teachers and researchers, of whom 20 have the title of professor, 16 have the title of associate professor, and there is one lecturer. Thirty three of these faculty members hold doctorate degrees and 4 have master degrees. Apart from this, the Department of Sociology has several honored faculty members, including one professor of "Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) Outstanding Scholars Program" and 2 visiting professors. In addition, the Department has hosted dozens of teachers and researchers as visiting scholars from other institutions in China and abroad.

The Department has become a leading institution on the basis of its strong research, teaching and social service. The Department of Sociology has acted as the host for the administrative offices of a number of academic societies, such as the Association of China’s Social Work and Education, the Folklore Society of China, the Branch of Ethnic Sociology under the Association of Sociology of China.

The sociologists of Peking University have had broad and far-reaching impacts in China and abroad. Fei Xiaotong, Lei Jieqiong and Yuan Fang, who represent the older generation of Chinese sociologists, have played particularly important roles, not only in the early formation and development of sociology in China, but also subsequent to the 1970s when they were important to the reconstruction of sociology in China, to policy making and to China’s general social development. Fei Xiaotong, Lei Jieqiong, and Yuan Fang, successively, were the presidents of Chinese Sociological Association; and Fei Xiaotong and Lei Jieqiong also had long service as vice chairmen of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

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