The invention discloses a light path deflection-based double-light-path single-sensor gas infrared detection system and method. The system comprises an infrared light source, a reference gas chamber, a detection gas chamber, a deflection reflector, an infrared photoelectric detector and a deflection device. The deflection device drives the light source or a reflector to generate deflection, so that light paths are switched between the reference gas chamber and the detection gas chamber and reach the infrared detector in a time-sharing mode; the infrared detector compares the intensity of detected light signals twice, takes a common logarithm of the ratio of the two light signals as a detection signal and converts the detection signal into gas concentration through polynomial fitting according to a calibration sample. By adoption of the infrared sensor, the influence brought by light source drift is eliminated, and the influence brought by characteristic drift of the sensor also can be eliminated.