The invention discloses a waveform correlation-based distance protection method under a distributed parameter model. The method includes the following steps that: break variable current is adopted as a protection startup component, and whether a fault occurs on a line is judged, and protection is started; waveform correlation coefficients rho 0.6D and rho D of fault voltage and fault component current at 60% and 100% of the line are calculated through utilizing voltage and current sampling values where protection is installed and combining with fault phase selection results when a fault phase is under a power transmission line Bergeron; and whether rho 0.6D and rho D satisfy the expression rho D<=rho 0.6D is judged, if rho 0.6D and rho D satisfy the expression, the fault is an intra-region fault, protection action trips, otherwise, the protection does not act. The method of the invention is based on a power transmission line distribution parameter model, so that the method is not affected by line distribution characteristics; fault voltage and fault component current are utilized to form time domain protection criterions, and filtering is not required, and transition resistance-withstanding ability is strong; and the fault can be judged as long as the waveform correlation coefficients of voltage and current of two points at the tail end of the line are judged, and therefore, calculation amount is small.