BackgroundTumour perineural invasion (PNI) is a predictor of poor prognosis, but its effect on the prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) has not yet been elucidated.MethodsThis retrospective study used propensity score matching (PSM). The clinical case data of 1470 patients with surgically treated stage I–IV CRC at Wuhan Union Hospital were collected. PSM was used to analyse and compare the clinicopathological characteristics, perioperative outcomes, and long-term prognostic outcomes of the PNI(+) and PNI(-) groups. The factors influencing prognosis were screened using Cox univariate and multivariate analyses.ResultsAfter PSM, 548 patients were included in the study (n = 274 in each group). Multifactorial analysis showed that neurological invasion was an independent prognostic factor affecting patients’ OS and DFS (hazard ratio [HR], 1.881; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.35–2.62; P = 0.0001; HR, 1.809; 95% CI, 1.353–2.419; P < 0.001). Compared to PNI(+) patients without chemotherapy, those who received chemotherapy had a significant improvement in OS (P < 0.01). The AUROC curve of OS in the PNI(+) subgroup (0.802) was higher than that after PSM (0.743), while that of DFS in the PNI(+) subgroup (0.746) was higher than that after PSM (0.706). The independent predictors of PNI(+) could better predict the prognosis and survival of patients with PNI(+).ConclusionsPNI significantly affects the long-term survival and prognosis of patients with CRC undergoing surgery and is an independent risk factor for OS and DFS in patients with CRC undergoing surgery. Postoperative chemotherapy significantly improved the OS of PNI(+) patients.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-023-10936-w.