ObjectivesTo systematically review the epidemiological characteristics of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in Chinese elderly population.MethodsPubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, CNKI, VIP, WanFang Data and CBM databases were electronically searched to collect studies on the epidemiological characteristics of mild cognitive impairment in the elderly in China from inception to May 2019. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed risk of bias of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed by using Stata 12.0 software.ResultsA total of 25 studies involving 56 720 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that the prevalence of MCI in Chinese elderly population was 14% (95%CI 12% to 17%), in which 12.1% (95%CI 9.7% to 14.5%) was male and 14.8% (95%CI 12.5% to 17.2%) was female. The prevalence of MCI was 8% (95%CI 6.0% to 10.1%) in the elderly aged 60 to 69, 13.1% (95%CI 10.6% to 15.6%) in the elderly aged 70 to 79 and 23.4% (95%CI 18.3% to 28.6%) in the elderly aged above 80. The prevalence of MCI was 23% (95%CI 18.3% to 27.6%) in the elderly who were illiterate, 15.2% (95%CI 11.2% to 19.2%) among the elderly with a primary education and 9.8% (95%CI 7.1% to 12.6%) among the elderly with an education above junior high school. The prevalence of MCI was 9.9% (95%CI 5.5% to 14.2%) in urban areas, and 16.7% (95%CI 11.2% to 22.2%) in rural areas. The prevalence of MCI was 12.1% (95%CI 7.7% to 16.5%) in married individuals and 17.1% (95%CI 13.9% to 20.2%) in single individuals. The prevalence of MCI was 15.4% (95%CI 11.4% to 19.4%) in northern China, 14.1% (95%CI 11.1% to 17.2%) in eastern China, 5.4% (95%CI 3.9% to 6.9%) in northeast China, 13% (95%CI 6.2% to 19.8%) in Central-south China, 11.7% (95%CI 10.2% to 13.2%) in the southwest China and 17.4% (95%CI 2.5% to 32.3%) in northwest China. By using the diagnostic criteria proposed by Petersen, the prevalence of MCI was 15.2% (95%CI 11.8% to 18.7%), and was 12.4% (95%CI 9.4% to 15.4%) using the criteria of the DSM-Ⅳ.ConclusionsThe prevalence of MCI is high in China, and varies with gender, age, education, location, marital status, region and diagnostic criteria.