ObjectiveTo systematically review the disease burden and epidemiological characteristics of diabetes mellitus in Chinese population, and to provide references 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 diabetes mellitus in Chinese population up to January 1st, 2014. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, two researchers screened literature, exacted data, and assessed methodological quality of included studies. Statistical analysis was performed with the data of diabetes associated population, mortality and disease burden were analyzed. ResultsA total of 39 studies were included, one of which was not included for further qualitative analysis due to low quality. The results of qualitative analysis involving 38 studies showed that, since 1980, the prevalence of diabetes increased rapidly in China, especially in the younger age group. The disease burden of woman was higher than that of man; it was slightly higher in the city than in the countryside; but the gap between urban and rural areas was gradually narrowed. Disease burdens in Eastern, Central and Western regions orderly decreased, all of which were all at high levels. ConclusionThe disease burden of diabetes mellitus in China is seriously high and the prevention and control work is very hard. It is necessary to rationally and effectively allocate health resources based on different health demands in different regions among urban-rural and age groups; to reduce the burden in the elderly; and to pay more attention to the young age population at the same time. Besides, the emphasis of prevention should be placed on suppressing the increase of prevalence of diabetes mellitus and reducing disease burden due to its complications.