ObjectivesTo systematically review the disease burden and epidemiological characteristics of tuberculosis in the Chinese population, and to provide reference for health resources allocation and health policy making.MethodsDatabases such as PubMed, EMbase, CNKI, VIP and WanFang Data were searched for studies investigating disease burden of tuberculosis in Chinese population from inception to August 1st, 2017. Two researchers independently screened literature, exacted data and assessed methodological quality of included studies. Statistical analysis was performed on data of tuberculosis associated population, mortality and disease burden.ResultsA total of 40 studies were included. The results of qualitative analysis showed that, since 1990, the prevalence of tuberculosis and its disease burden in China decreased year by year. However, the disease burden per patient and the total economic burden in China showed an increasing trend, and the economical disease burden increased 1.6 times from 1993 to 2003. The disease burden of men was higher than that of women, and it was higher in the countryside than in the city. In 2004, the ratio of YLL per thousand people in rural and urban areas was 2.18, and the ratio was 1.29 in 2014. Additionally, the disease burden decreased gradually in western, central and eastern regions. In 2014, compared with 2004, YLL decreased by 1.11, while the central and eastern regions were 0.48 and 0.25, respectively. The gap between the gender, the urban and rural areas and the regions was not as significant as in previous.ConclusionsThe disease burden of tuberculosis in China is seriously high and the tuberculosis prevention and control work should take into consideration the epidemiological characteristics of tuberculosis and the trends of the disease burden. It is necessary to rationally and effectively implement health intervention programs and allocate health resources based on different health demands in different regions and age groups to reduce the morbidity and mortality, and to pay more attention to drug-resistant tuberculosis. Besides, the emphasis of prevention should be placed on reducing disease burden in the elderly and strengthening prevention in the young population.