Eu3+-doped YF3 was prepared by a hydrothermal process. The structure and morphology of the sample were analyzed. The results indicate that the synthesized sample is single phase and the particle size is homogeneous. The excitation and emission spectra of YF3:Eu3+ were investigated by fluorescence spectrophotometer. The excitation spectrum has several excitation bands at 320，365，386,397,418 and 467 nm, and the main peak value is 397 nm. Typical Eu3+ emission peaks at 591 nm（5D0→7F1） and 612 nm（5D0→7F2） are observed when excited by 397 nm, and the strongest emission is 591 nm, demonstrating that the rare earth ions occupy the centrosymmetrical sites in YF3. The influence of the concentration of Eu3+ ions to the emission intensity was investigated, and the results show that the emission spectrum intensity increases with increasing Eu3+ concentration, and reaches the maximum value when the molar fraction of Eu3+ is 2%, and then decreases due to the concentration quenching.