A method for determining the lead content in cigarette paper with microwave digestion-graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry was developed. Some process variables, including quantities of sample, the composition of digestion agent, ashing temperature, atomizing temperature and matrix modifier were optimized as follows: 4 mL of nitric acid at the concentration of 65%, 2 mL of hydrogen peroxide, and 2 mL of high purity water were used as the digestion agent for 0.3000 g of cigarette paper in the presence of microwave irradiation. And the ashing temperature, atomizing temperature and matrix modifier applied were 700, 1900 °C and 0.10 g/L of ammonium dihydrogen phosphate, respectively. Under the optimum conditions, the detection limit and relative standard deviations were 0.471 µg/L and 1.04%, respectively. The recoveries of 4 kinds of cigarette paper ranged from 97.8% to 105.7%. This method is simple and accurate, features higher sensitivity and recovery and good repeatability, and is suitable for determining the lead content in cigarette paper.