Objective To investigate the use of statins in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in Beijing. Methods A non-interventional observational study of inpatients and outpatients with T2DM in a total of 6 hospitals from August 2015 to March 2016. According to the questionnaire, the patients were divided into the current statin use group, the previous statin use group and the statin non-use group. Variance analysis or t test analysis was used to compare the use of statins and the compliance rate of blood lipids among diabetic patients in each group, and logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the influencing factors of discontinuation of statins. Results A total of 1 518 patients with T2DM were included in the study, of which 45.9% (696/1 518) were current statin users, 10.9% (166/1 518) were former statin users, and 43.2% (656/1 518) were non-users of statins. The compliance rates of total cholesterol (TC), total low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and total triglyceride (TG) were 52.0% (789/1 518), 54.0% (820/1 518) and 60.7% (922/1 518), respectively. The blood lipid compliance rate of diabetic patients ≥65 years old (639 cases) was higher than patients younger than 65 years old (879 cases);current statin users had higher TC and LDL-C compliance rates than former statin users and statin non-users (both P<0.001). The reasons why patients stopped using statins were as follows: 33.1% (79/239) of people believed that their blood lipids were well controlled; 29.3% (70/239) were afraid of side effects of drugs; 18.4% (44/239) had side effects after taking the drugs. According to logistic regression analysis, age ≥ 65 years (OR=1.847, 95%CI 1.088-3.134, P=0.023), diabetic course ≥ 10 years (OR=2.752, 95%CI 1.369-5.531, P=0.039), poor understanding of diabetes (OR=3.209, 95%CI 1.393-7.393, P=0.006) and LDL-C target intervals (OR=4.111, 95%CI 1.364-12.390, P=0.012) were related with discontinuation of statins. Conclusions The success rate of blood lipids of current users of statins is higher than that of previous users and non-users of statins. The use of statins in patients with T2DM in Beijing is still significantly insufficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]