The invention relates to an H.264 frame layer code rate control method based on a structural similarity coefficient. The structural similarity theory is utilized for distributing the H.264 frame layer code rate. The method comprises the following steps that A, the target bit number of the remaining frame is calculated; B, the structural similarity coefficient is calculated; C, the target bit number of the current frame is determined according to the structural similarity coefficient; D, a quantization parameter is calculated; and E, rate-distortion optimization is carried out. The method is characterized in that the structural similarity coefficient is defined, and the target bit number of the frame is determined on the basis of the defined structural similarity coefficient. The H.264 frame layer code rate control method has the advantages that the code rate can be more accurately controlled, and in addition, the structural similarity of the video output sequence can be improved, so that the better subjective video quality is obtained.