The invention provides a rapid fault positioning method and system based on active power distribution network fault area division. The method comprises the following steps: carrying out partition division on a fault section of an active power distribution network; carrying out fault positioning on the divided fault sections by adopting a fault positioning mathematical model; wherein in the fault positioning mathematical model, a particle swarm algorithm is adopted to carry out particle swarm position and speed updating, then particle fitness is calculated, then a particle library is updated, whether an optimal objective function is zero or not is judged, and when the optimal objective function is zero or the highest number of iterations is reached, an optimal solution, namely the specific position of the fault, is output. According to the method, the power distribution network area is firstly divided, then fault positioning is performed, accurate fault positioning after the fault occurs is realized, the line patrol burden can be reduced, the power failure area is reduced, the fault repair time is shortened, rapid and accurate fault positioning of the power distribution network is further realized, and the power supply reliability of the power distribution network is improved.