Permanganate index is an important parameter to evaluate the organic pollution for water sources, and the current national standard method is titration analysis which needs large sample and is complicated. A new analytical method of measuring permanganate index in surface water using UV-Vis spectrometry has thus been studied. In the laboratory work, analytical wavelength of UV-Vis spectrometry was chosen. The effect of sulfuric acid dosage, concentration and dosage of KMnO4 together with heating temperature and time was identified. In order to evaluate this new method, the linear relationship of this method was tested and the analysis results were compared with those by titration method. The selected optimum analysis parameters were: 525 nm wavelength, 25% H2SO4 dosage of 5.00 mL, 0.012 50 mol·L-1 KMnO4 dosage of 2.00 mL, 30 min heating time at the temperature of 100 ℃. This UV-Vis spectrometry method was successfully applied to measuring the permanganate index of the samples collected from the Jialing River and the Yangtze River. Compared with the current national standard method, this method is time and cost efficient, sensitive and precise, with low reagent usage; and is also easy to be manipulated and can be employed for online monitor, thus making it an environmental friendly analysing method.