It is an important issue that ideological and political education in the new era needs to discuss to advance from abstract man to “real individual” and deepen from facing man’s needs to facing individual needs. Addressing individual needs is not the same as catering to individual needs, nor does it promote individualism or egoism. The orientation of ideological and political education to individual needs in the new era is the implementation and development of Marxist theory of human studies in the field of ideological and political education, which highlights the individual dimension of human beings and presents rich implications from the three dimensions of goal, content and method. It takes the realization of everyone’s free and comprehensive development as the value objective, satisfies and guides individual spiritual needs as the core content, and takes “realistic individuals” and their needs as the practice starting point. In the new era, the orientation of ideological and political education towards individual needs is the unity of regularity, contemporaneity and pertinence. It is not only a necessary requirement to follow the law of the formation and development of human ideological morality, but also a practical demand to solve the individualized dilemma of ideological and political education, and an inevitable requirement to promote the high-quality development of ideological and political education. Adhering to the combination of supply and demand, the optimization of structure and the supremacy of the people are the internal rules of ideological and political education in the new era to meet the needs of individuals. In order to promote the positive orientation of ideological and political education to individual needs in the new era, and then enhance the pertinence and affinity of ideological and political education at the same time, truly take human needs as the starting point and destination, we must start from the following three aspects. First, it is necessary to accurately assess the individual needs and enhance the fit degree of factor supply. Second, we should focus on the people’s needs for a better life and enhance the level of individual needs. Third, we should assist the people in achieving common prosperity in their spiritual life, and implement the principle that no one can be left behind.