The development of leading industries plays an important role in regional economic development and regional industrial restructuring. Based on the data of input-output flow tables of Xinjiang in 2007 and 2012, this paper selects six small indicators to establish the total coefficient, and uses the input-output method to select 10 industries with the highest total coefficient score to represent the leading industries in Xinjiang. Finally, through comparative analysis of the similarities and differences between the leading industries selected in 2007 and 2012, it is concluded that most of the leading industries in Xinjiang belong to resource-dependent industries. Industry, however, with the promotion of the construction of core areas, services such as wholesale, retail and financial industries have also become leading industries, reflecting to a certain extent the development of leading industries in Xinjiang and the trend of continuous optimization of industrial structure.