The invention relates to a wireless sensor network (WSN) routing protocol, in particular to an improved multi-hop LEACH protocol based on chaotic genetic algorithm for wireless sensor networks (ICGA-LEACH) . The ICGA-LEACH considers the node residual energy, the ratio of the node residual energy to the load and the node centrality to define a cluster head election threshold function, so that the probability that nodes which are located in the center of the cluster, low in load and high in energy become cluster heads is high, therefore uniformly distributed clusters are formed, and the communication energy consumption in the clusters is reduced. In order to reduce inter-cluster communication energy consumption, a chaotic genetic algorithm is adopted to search for a globally optimal multi-hop routing path. Moreover, the cluster maintenance is carried out by adopting a self-adaptive round period, so that a large number of control messages generated by frequent clustering are reduced, andthe network energy consumption is further reduced. Therefore, the ICGA-LEACH improves the network energy efficiency while balancing the network load, and effectively prolongs the network life cycle.