The invention relates to a design method for row space between pressure relief boreholes. The method comprises the following three steps of: before the row space between the pressure relief boreholes is designed, firstly, requiring to evaluate the stress environment of a pressure relief site, and calculating a working face (roadway) surrounding rock supporting pressure peak value [Sigma]p and a peak value position Lp; selecting a surrounding rock on the Lp as an analysis object, adopting a corrected surrounding rock elastoplasticity analytical solution to calculate a borehole plastic zone radius rp, taking the rp as an index for evaluating the single-hole action range of the borehole, and determining the maximum row space between the boreholes as R which is less than or equal to 2rp; and meanwhile, adopting the elastoplasticity analytical solution to calculate the evolution curve of the circumferential stress [Sigma][Theta] of the borehole, taking the stress of a crosspoint of the circumferential stress curves of the adjacent boreholes as [Sigma]m, taking the stress [Sigma]0 of primary rock of an experiment site as an evaluation index, and determining the condition of the minimum row space R between the boreholes as [Sigma]m which is greater than or equal to [Sigma]0. The method is simple in operation and high in practicality and can be applied to fields including high-stress roadway pressure relief, rock burst prevention and treatment, high gassy seam permeability increasing and the like, the design accuracy of the row space between the boreholes can be effectively improved, and a borehole engineering quantity is lowered.