Abstract: Foamed metal is a new type of lightweight structural-functional material. Its internal connected or disconnected pore structure makes it have excellent damping properties, thermal physical properties and electromagnetic properties, etc.Therefore, it is widely used in aerospace, rail transit, biomedicine, radiators and other fields. Based on this, taking foamed magnesium as the starting point, the several commonly used preparation methods of foamed magnesium were briefly described, the research status of damping properties, mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of foamed magnesium was summarized, the strengthening measures to improve its mechanical properties and corrosion resistance were analyzed in detail. The future research direction of foamed metal was forecasted in order to provide references for the preparation of foamed magnesium alloy with mature process and excellent performance.