Long-chain aliphatic dicarboxylic acids generally refer to the saturated straight-chain dicarboxylic acids containing ten or more carbon atoms. Due to the existence of carboxyl functional groups in each terminal, they are usually applied to synthesize perfumes, special nylon engineering plastics, hot melt adhesives, coatings, plasticizers, senior lubricants and many other chemical products. In addition, they have better properties than short-chain dicarboxylic acids because of their long methylene sequences, which makes the corresponding composite materials have superior performance and be widely used in chemical industry, light industry, national defense, automobile industry, engineering materials and other fields. Besides, they could be also used to develop new polymer products. Long-chain aliphatic dicarboxylic acids do not exist alone in nature. At present, they have been synthesized mainly via chemical synthesis and biological fermentation in industry. In this review, the synthetic methods of long-chain aliphatic dicarboxylic acids are summarized, including traditional organic synthesis, biotechnology conversion, olefin metathesis, isomerization hydroxycarbonylation and functionalization of polyethylene. The application of long-chain aliphatic dicarboxylic acids in the polycondensation(mainly of polyesters and polyamides) is also briefly introduced. Finally, the problems remaining to be solved in the synthesis and the further advances are prospected.