Objective To investigate the primary peripheral non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in stage T1 of TNM (UICC2011) (the tumor size≤3 cm) and to find out the lymphadenectomy way which will benefit patients most. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 60 patients with primary peripheral NSCLC in our hospital between November 2014 and May 2015. There were 26 males and 34 females at age of 34-76 (57.91±7.75) years. The lymph nodes dissection and metastasis were recorded. Results The total number of intrathoracic lymph nodes dissection is 1 208,with an average of 20.1, including 33 metastasis lymph nodes. The metastasis rate was 2.73%. A total of 51 patients were not found the mediastinum and hilum metastasis lymph node through the routine pathological detection method，while metastasis lymph node in section 12 and (or) 13 and (or) 14 group were found in 3 patients in our trial. The detection rate was 5.89%. For stage T1 primary peripheral NSCLC, with increasing tumor size, lymph node metastasis rate was gradually increased. The patients with solid lesions were more likely to have lymph node metastasis than those with non-solid lesions (pure ground-glass nodules or mixed ground-glass nodules) which generally did not find lymph node metastasis. Conclusion The lymph node metastasis rate in stage T1 primary peripheral NSCLC is related to the tumor size, nature, histological type, local pleural stretch in imaging. The dissection of lung lymph node (12+13+14 groups)may be able to find simple intrapulmonary lymph nodes metastasis. It is important to the selection of delineated staging and treatment program in stage T1 primary peripheral NSCLC.