Chromodomain helicase/ATPase DNA-binding protein 1-like (CHD1L) is overexpressed and highly associated with poor prognosis in many malignancies. However, the role of CHD1L in bladder cancer (BC) has not been thoroughly elucidated. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship of CHD1L expression with clinicopathological parameters and prognosis in BC. Immunohistochemistry was carried out to investigate the protein expression of CHD1L in 153 BC tissues and 87 adjacent noncancerous tissues. Our data found that CHD1L protein expression was significantly higher in BC tissues than in adjacent noncancerous tissues (P < 0.001). CHD1L overexpression was significantly correlated with histologic grade (P = 0.005) and tumor stage (P = 0.009). The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that survival time of patients with high CHD1L expression was significantly shorter than that with low CHD1L expression. Multivariate analysis further demonstrated that CHD1L was an independent prognostic factor for patients with BC. In conclusion, CHD1L is likely to be a valuable marker for carcinogenesis and progression of BC. It might be used as an important diagnostic and prognostic marker for BC patients.