A method and apparatus for generating a handover neighbor list of base stations capable of communicating with a mobile terminal in a cellular mobile communication system. A UMTS RAN manager (URM) collects handover attempt count and handover ratio data as handover statistical information of a source base station and determines rankings of target base stations in order of handover frequency from the base station according to the handover attempt count or the handover ratio. The URM then generates a neighbor list of the source base station in order of high ranking. The proposed method and apparatus reduces overhead due to cell searching in performing handover.