Talent is the first resource,and talent resources have a prominent position and role in the economic and social development. Taking 295 talent research projects funded by the National Social Science Fund from 1983 to 2023 as the sample data for statistical analysis. The results are as follows. In terms of the number of projects, the annual number of projects for talent research shows an overall upward trend, which is mainly divided into a stable stage, a fluctuating growth stage, and a stable growth stage. In terms of the distribution of disciplines, the cross-disciplinary attributes of talent research are prominent, which are widely distributed in 23 basic disciplines, mainly concentrated in three disciplines including management, education and physical education. In terms of research hotspots, guided by major theoretical and practical issues of the Party and the State, it focuses on high-level talents, scientific and technological talents, innovative talents, reserve talents, and international talents, and has formed hot research sections such as talent training, talent system and mechanism, talent flow, and talent evaluation. There are problems such as unbalanced regional distribution of research forces, shortage of high-level innovative talents, and constant adjustment and innovation in the system and mechanism of talent service and promoting talent development. In the future, the National Social Science Fund should increase its support for talent projects, and talent research will expand in the direction of combining the in-depth implementation of the strategy of strengthening the country with talent, constantly improving the socialist talent theory with Chinese characteristics, and solving the problems of talent in China.