The invention discloses a method for preparing 2,3-butanedione from paraformaldehyde. The method comprises the following steps of: preparing methyl vinyl ketone in one step from paraformaldehyde and acetone which serve as raw materials and L-proline serving as a catalyst through a condensation reaction of aldehydes and ketone and a dehydration reaction; and preparing 1,2-epoxy butanone from the methyl vinyl ketone serving as a raw material, hydrogen peroxide serving as an oxidant and a titanium and silicon molecular sieve serving as a catalyst by a catalytic oxidation method, and adding sodium hydrogensulfite for heating, and performing pinacol rearrangement to prepare 2,3-butanedione. Compared with the conventional method for preparing the 2,3-butanedione, the method has the characteristics of low cost, environmental-friendliness, high conversion rate of the paraformaldehyde and selectivity of the 2,3-butanedione and the like, and provides an environmental-friendly synthetic method for the industrial production of the 2,3-butanedione.