As proposed in the revised MSC.1/Circ.1533 (2016), evacuation analysis should be performed to evaluate escape routes at an early stage of ship design. Accordingly, this paper introduces how to apply the evacuation analysis method to guide the general arrangement design of passenger ships in the early design stage. The study deeply analyzes the mutual influence between the evacuation analysis method and the general arrangement design, focusing on three decisive parameters of the total evacuation time. These include the influence of vertical spatial division on the staircase passage time (tstair), the influence of deck horizontal layout on the deck movement time (tdeck), and the influence of crowding and queuing on the flow time (tF). Incorporating evacuation analysis in the early stage of passenger ship design aims to achieve rational planning of the ship's escape routes. This approach helps to avoid excessive sacrifice of the general arrangement space and effectively prevents major subsequent modifications, while meeting the performance requirements of the evacuation analysis. An overview of existing domestic research reveals that most studies remain at a superficial level. Therefore, efforts in evacuation analysis research should be gradually increased to lay a foundation for the independent research and development of high-end passenger ships in China.