A 5th generation (5G) or 6th generation (6G) communication system for supporting higher data rates, compared to that of a 4th generation (4G) communication system such as a long term evolution (LTE) communication system are provided. An apparatus and a method for load balancing in a wireless communication system are provided. The apparatus includes a transceiver, a memory storing one or more instructions, and at least one processor configured to execute the one or more instructions stored in the memory to receive first information about a relation between a base station (BS) and a user equipment (UE) from each of a plurality of BSs, determine, based on the first information, a number of UEs on which handover has to be performed from among UEs served by each of the plurality of BSs, and transmit, to each of the plurality of BSs, priority information determined based on the number of UEs.