Objective To systematically review the prevalence of depression in rural Chinese population aged 60 and above from 2010 to 2023. MethodsThe CNKI、WanFang Data、VIP、CBM、PubMed、Embase and Cochrane Library databases were electronically searched to collect cross-sectional studies on the prevalence of depression of elderly populations in rural China from January 2010 to March 2023. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias of the included studies. Meta-analysis was then performed using Stata 17.0 software. ResultsA total of 23 cross-sectional studies with a total sample of 34 916 cases and 11 308 depression patients were included. The meta-analysis results showed that the prevalence of depression in rural Chinese population was 31.02% (95%CI 26.10% to 36.16%). Subgroup analysis showed that the prevalence was higher among females than males; the GDS-30 scale had the highest detection rate, followed by the CES-D-10 and GDS-15 scales; the prevalence was higher in the Midwest than in the East; and the prevalence was higher in surveys conducted after 2015 than in 2015 and before. In addition, the prevalence of depression was higher in the rural elderly population aged 70 and above, non-married, illiterate or semi-literate, with poor self-rated health status, living alone, in poor economic status, with chronic diseases, and with low social activity. ConclusionThe prevalence of depression is high among the rural elderly population in China, and there are significant disparities in the prevalence of different characteristics of the elderly. These differences should be given more attention to improve the mental health of the rural elderly population. Due to the limited quantity and quality of the included studies, more high-quality studies are needed to verify the above conclusion.