The invention relates to a process for increasing aromatic hydrocarbon content of petroleum fraction. The process is as below: raw materials comprising crude oil, atmospheric residual oil, vacuum residual oil and vacuum distillate oil are subjected to hydrorefining, olefin saturation and aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation, solvent refining and hydrogenation. A thermal cracking reaction requires the conditions of: entrance temperature of 360 DEG C-480 DEG C, pressure of 0.1-2.0MPa; a first hydrogenation reaction bed requires the conditions of: temperature of 250 DEG C-400 DEG C, hydrogen partial pressure of 2-20 MPa, liquid hourly space velocity of 0.2-2.0 h<-1>, volumetric ratio of hydrogen to oil of 300:1-1500:1; refining of a furfural solvent requires the conditions of: solvent mass ratio of 1:1.3-3.5; a second hydrogenation reaction bed layer requires the conditions of: temperature of 200 DEG C-380 DEG C, hydrogen pressure of 3-20MPa, liquid hourly space velocity of 0.2-2.0 h <-1>, and volumetric ratio of hydrogen to oil of 300:1-1000:1; and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PCA)content of the fraction is less than 3%, and aromatic hydrocarbon content is 10%-60%.