Vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) is the second most common cognitive impairment disease after Alzheimer disease (AD), and there is no effective intervention method at present. Iron is an essential metal element for human body. It is not only involved in the synthesis of ATP and DNA, but also closely related to myelin synthesis and neurotransmitter cycle. When iron homeostasis is disrupted, iron deposition occurs in the central nervous system. Several studies have shown that iron deposition in central nervous system is associated with cognitive disorders, such as AD and VCI, but the specific mechanism of this association is still poorly understood. This paper summarizes the formation and classification of iron deposition in central nervous system, overviews the correlation between iron deposition in central nervous system and different types of VCI, preliminarily discusses the possible mechanism of iron deposition in central nervous system to induce VCI, and tries to understand the basic and clinical relationship between iron deposition in central nervous system and VCI.