The effects of accelerated Ultraviolet (UV) radiation on High temperature vulcanized (HTV), Room temperature vulcanized (RTV) silicone rubber and two types of ethylene propylene diene terpolymer (EPDM) used for composite insulator were investigated by hydrophobicity class (HC), surface voltage decay after corona charging, SEM-ES, FTIR and XPS. The contact angle in two kinds of silicone rubber was scarcely change, but EPDM occurred to the loss of hydrophobicity followed by surface cracking and chalking. The surface voltage decay on UV-treated silicone rubber and EPDM showed a different decay trend with UV treatment. EDS and XPS analysis indicated that the oxygen content increased with UV treatment time in all samples. For silicone rubber, the oxidized groups of inorganic silica-like structure increased with UV treatment time. The oxidized carbon of C=O, O=C-O in EPDM increased. These oxidized surface for each material had different electrostatic characteristics, so deposited charges were expected to have different impacts on their surface hydrophobicity. The degradation mechanism based on our results was discussed.