Abstract: Hydrogen (H₂) has a high calorific value with no pollution, which can effectively alleviate the increasingly serious energy and environmental crisis; efficient electrolytic water catalytic materials can greatly reduce the overpotential of water splitting into hydrogen and oxygen, and improve the efficiency of water splitting. Rare earth element cerium (Ce) has such excellent redox ability that adding it into electrolytic water catalytic materials can greatly improve the catalytic efficiency of electrocatalytic materials. At present, this kind of materials have been widely concerned by scholars at home and abroad. This article mainly introduces how Ce constructs electrocatalytic materials in nanoparticle modification, skeleton, hydroxide, metal organic framework and some other fields, and then summarizes the research progress of electrocatalytic performance and mechanism of Ce-containing catalytic materials in hydrogen evolution reaction and oxygen evolution reaction at home and abroad. Finally, it discusses where Ce or other rare earth elements applied in electrocatalytic materials go in the future.