The invention relates to an energy-efficiency-based cell selection method for a multilevel heterogeneous network, and belongs to the technical field of wireless communication. The method comprises the following steps that 1, users calculate own alternative base station lists and selection degree of freedom information, and report the information to all base stations in the alternative base station lists; 2, all the base stations share own basic information and the information reported by the users; 3, the base stations select the user of which the selection degree of freedom is minimum every time, and determine a cell selected by the user according to a designed new criterion; 4, the base stations update the original alternative base station list and selection degree of freedom information; 5, steps 3 and 4 are cyclically executed until each user selects the corresponding access cell. According to the method, differences of different base stations are ignored, and the SINR (Signal to Interface and Noise Ratio) required by each user, loads of the base stations and the utilization efficiency of the users for the energy of the base stations of the cells are comprehensively taken into account, so that the quality of service for the users is ensured, the phenomena of load non-uniformity and user starvation are avoided, and the energy utilization efficiency of the users is improved.