In order to effectively evaluate the safety status of elevators and decrease accidents caused by elevators, an assessment method combining risk degree and grey theory was proposed to evaluate the safety status of elevator. The two aspects of severity and possibility were all taken into account to establish the safety assessment index system of elevator. The weight was determine by AHP and the entropy weight method. The distance function method and the minimum relative information entropy principle were introduced to determine the weight combination. At the same time, the gray theory was used to establish the gray class and whitening right function. The elevator risk value was revised by the theory of accident risk degree, which evaluates the risk level of the elevator based on the revised score. The method was applied to a certain passenger elevator, which the research results show that there was a safety hazard in this elevator. The elevator risk value is calculated by without establishing risk degree theory and only considering the elevator component. Then making comparison between the former value and the latter value obtained by establishing risk degree theory. It proves that this method can accurately reflect the safety situation of elevator.