China has a total of 226 lizard species (except alien invasive species) by the end of 2020 and is one of the countries with the richest lizard diversity in the world. Systematically gathering the trait data of Chinese lizards is of great importance in studying their origin, evolution, extinction and conservation. However, so far, there is no complete database on the life-history, ecological traits and geographic distribution of Chinese lizards. The aim of this study is thus to provide a comprehensive dataset of species traits for Chinese lizards. Through extensive retrieval and collection, we systematically collated data on 19 characteristic traits for all the 226 native species of Chinese lizards: year of description, China Red List status, IUCN Red List status, Chinese endemism, insular endemism, snout-vent length, body mass, diet, clutch size, reproductive mode, leg development, activity time, substrate, habitat type, habitat width, elevation range, geographic range size, biogeographic realm and domestic distribution. Nevertheless, data completeness varied from 47.14% to 100% among traits. Except for leg development, year of description, Chinese endemism, insular endemism and domestic distribution, the data on other traits were incomplete to some extent. Our database is the latest and most complete one on species traits of Chinese lizards. The dataset can provide support for the research fields of ecology, evolution, biogeography, and conservation biology in Chinese lizards.