The development and application of hydrogen energy in power generation, automobiles, and energy storage industries are expected to effectively solve the problems of energy waste and pollution. However, because of the inherent characteristics of hydrogen, it is difficult to maintain high safety during production, transportation, storage, and utilization. Therefore, to ensure the safe and reliable utilization of hydrogen, its characteristics relevant to leakage and diffusion, ignition, and explosion must be analyzed. Through an analysis of literature, in combination with our practical survey analysis, this paper reviews the key issues concerning hydrogen safety, including hydrogen incident investigation, hydrogen leakage and diffusion, hydrogen ignition, and explosion. (c) 2021 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.