Surface damage caused by ion implantation is assessed by backscatter Kikuchi diffraction in the scanning electron microscope. Backscatter Kikuchi diffraction patterns from Si(100) specimens implanted with different doses of 80-keV Ge ions between 3×1012 and 3×1014 ions cm−2 are obtained. The pattern contrast is quantified in a straightforward procedure employing standard image-processing operations. A comparison between the contrast in backscattering Kikuchi diffraction patterns and the channeling minimum in energy spectra by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry as a measure for surface implantation damage is made. As it turns out, both measures are about equally sensitive to the level of the surface implantation damage. The lateral resolution (<100 nm) and the high surface sensitivity (of the order of 10 nm) of backscatter Kikuchi diffraction may be exploited to study lateral implantation profiles with sub-μm resolution.