With the rapid development of science and technology, noise pollution has become a major barrier for residents' happy life, and the research of efficient sound-absorbing materials has become a hot research field. Polyurethane porous material has excellent damping properties and developed pore structure. Therefore, polyurethane has important application value in sound absorption and noise reduction as acoustic material matrix. In this work, the research reports of polyurethane sound-absorbing materials at home and abroad were reviewed and the sound-absorbing principle of porous materials was discussed. The paper mainly introduced the preparation, structure and sound- absorbing properties of polyurethane sound- absorbing materials. In addition, the research progress of modified porous polyurethane sound-absorbing materials was introduced, which mainly included the following aspects: modified polyurethane with fillers, preparation of composite aerogel, polyurethane foam and formation of multi- layer foam structure. Finally, the problems concerning the development direction of polyurethane in the field of sound absorption were briefly prospected. Based on the existing analysis, it is concluded that filler modification and structural design should be comprehensively used to regulate the performance of polyurethane sound absorption system in the future research, in order to obtain polyurethane sound absorption materials with high damping and high sound absorption performance, which could meet the requirements of industrial and commercial applications.