Objective: To analyze the expression of miR-1180 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissue and its clinical significance through bioinformatics data analysis. Methods: The relevant data sets from GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus) and TCGA (Cancer Genome Atlas) database were downloaded, and then the expression levels of miR-1180 in HCC tissues and cancer adjacent liver tissues were compared, and the relations of miR-1180 expression level with clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis of the patients were also analyzed. The prediction of potential target genes of miR-1180 and functional enrichment analyses of the target genes were performed by bioinformatics analysis. Furthermore, the key target genes of miR-1180 were screened based on survival analysis. Results: The expression levels of miR-1180 were significantly up-regulated in HCC tissues compared with the cancer adjacent tissues, which had good diagnostic efficiencies for HCC (AUC>0.8, all P<0.05). The miR-1180 expression level was significantly associated with age, family history of cancer, degree of tumor differentiation and AFP of the patients (all P<0.05). Survival analysis showed that miR-1180 overexpression was independent risk factor for diagnosis in HCC patients (P<0.05). Enrichment analyses revealed that the target genes of miR-1180 were mainly enriched in the pathways associated with lipid metabolism, cell migration, transcriptional regulation and fatty acid degradation. PPARGC1A, ALDH2, SARDH, HMGCS2, ESR1 and ETS2 were the key target genes of miR-1180, with significantly decreased down-regulation in HCC tissue (all P<0.05), and patients with low expressions of these genes had relatively poor prognosis (all P<0.05). Conclusion: The miR-1180 expression is increased in HCC tissue. It may participate in the occurrence and development of HCC as an oncogenic miRNA, and also has potential value as a diagnostic biomarker, prognostic indicator and therapeutic target for HCC.