The standard of care for patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is anatomical lung resection with lymphadenectomy. This multicenter, retrospective, cohort study aimed to identify predictors of 5-year survival in patients after thoracoscopic lobectomy for stage IA NSCLC. The study included 1249 patients who underwent thoracoscopic lobectomy for stage IA NSCLC between 17 April 2007, and December 28, 2016. The 5-year survival rate equaled 77.7%. In the multivariate analysis, higher age (OR, 1.025, 95% CI: 1.002 to 1.048; = 0.032), male sex (OR, 1.410, 95% CI: 1.109 to 1.793; = 0.005), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (OR, 1.346, 95% CI: 1.005 to 1.803; = 0.046), prolonged postoperative air leak (OR, 2.060, 95% CI: 1.424 to 2.980; < 0.001) and higher pathological stage (OR, 1.271, 95% CI: 1.048 to 1.541; = 0.015) were related to the increased risk of death within 5 years after surgery. Lobe-specific mediastinal lymph node dissection (OR, 0.725, 95% CI: 0.548 to 0.959; = 0.024) was related to the decreased risk of death within 5 years after surgery. These findings provide valuable insights for clinical practice and may contribute to improving the quality of treatment of early-stage NSCLC.