The invention relates to a target tracking method under complicated background based on an extreme learning machine. The method comprises the following steps: a detection module, a tracking module and an integration module are provided, wherein the detection module and the tracking module can operate independently and simultaneously and are used for carrying out detection and tracking on a target needing tracking; a detector in the detection module carries out multi-scale detection on a tracking target in the previous frame and outputting a result; a tracker in the tracking module carries out tracking on the tracking target in the previous frame and outputting a tracking result; the integration module receives the results output by the detection module and the tracking module in the step S5 and carries out comprehensive analysis on the results, and takes the result, of which the confidence degree is the highest, as the tracking target of the current frame and outputting the result; and repeating the steps above until the final video frame is finished. The detection module and the tracking module can operate independently and simultaneously, and the integration module integrates the results of the two modules, so that tracking precision and robustness can be improved effectively.