Objective To explore the social anxiety status and its relationship with personality of soldiers stationed on island. Methods Totally 289 soldiers stationed on island were assessed by Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SAD) and Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), and the data were analyzed by SPSS 21.0 software. Results The social avoidance (SA) score was significantly lower than that of Chinese university students (P<0.01), and the social distress (SD) score was significantly higher than that of submarine soldiers (P<0.05). There were significant differences in SAD scores among the soldiers with different lengths of military service (≤ 2 years, >2 years and ≤ 5 years, >5 years and ≤ 8 years, >8 years)(P<0.01), and the social anxiety status of soldiers with the lengths of military service of >2 years and ≤ 5 years was the most obvious. The scores of SA and SD were significantly correlated with four dimensions (psychoticism, introversive and extroversive tendency, neuroticism, and disguise) of EPQ (P<0.05, P<0.01). Conclusion Shaping outward and stable personality traits can help to improve social anxiety status of soldiers stationed on island.