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. 2025 Mar 13;23(1):158.
doi: 10.1186/s12916-025-03975-6.

Prevalence, trends, and geographic distribution of human papillomavirus infection in Chinese women: a summative analysis of 2,728,321 cases

Sirui Han #  1   2 , Mengyue Lin #  1   2 , Mengyu Liu #  3   4 , Shiwan Wu  1   2 , Pi Guo  2 , Jiubiao Guo  3 , Longxu Xie  5   6 , Song Qiu  5 , Aijuan Xu  5   7 , Yingmu Cai  8   9 , Yequn Chen  10   11   12
Affiliations

Prevalence, trends, and geographic distribution of human papillomavirus infection in Chinese women: a summative analysis of 2,728,321 cases

Sirui Han et al. BMC Med. .

Abstract

Background: Cervical cancer (CC), primarily caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, remains a significant global health concern. We aimed to comprehensively investigate the epidemiological status of HPV in China.

Methods: Data from 2,728,321 women undergoing routine cervical examinations at 2127 medical institutions nationwide from January 2017 to June 2023 were analyzed. HPV genotype testing was conducted using HPV DNA typing kits.

Results: The overall HPV prevalence was 17.70%, with 13.12% classified as high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) and 4.58% as low-risk HPV (LR-HPV). Notably, HPV52 emerged as the most common carcinogenic type, followed by HPV58 and HPV16. Age-specific prevalence revealed a bimodal distribution, with peaks observed in women under 21 and over 61 years of age. Geographically, the south (19.48%) exhibited the highest infection rate, while the northwest (12.36%) had the lowest. Furthermore, HPV infection rates were higher during winter and spring. Although HPV infection rates have remained stable overall over the past 7 years, the infection rate in 2023 (14.76%) has declined relative to 2017 (16.17%) (P < 0.05).

Conclusions: This study provides comprehensive insight into HPV epidemiology in China and guidance for future vaccine development and cervical cancer prevention strategies.

Keywords: Cervical cancer; China; Genotype distribution; HPV prevalence; Human papillomavirus.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of The First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College (Approval No. B-2024-113). The study adheres to the ethical principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki, the International Ethical Guidelines for Health-related Research Involving Humans (CIOMS), and other relevant regulations. Consent for publication: All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Chord diagram of HPV type correlations, the fan width represents the number of people infected, and the chord width between the two fans represents the number of people infected with both types (A); The left Y-axis and bar chart represent the number of positive and negative number of population, and the right Y-axis and line chart represent the prevalence (B). Line chart of the infection rate over years, HR-HPV, high-risk human papillomavirus, LR-HPV, low-risk human papillomavirus (C). Seasonal line chart of prevalence, spring: Mar, Apr, May; summer: Jun, Jul, Aug; autumn: Sep, Oct, Nov; winter: Dec, Jan, Feb (D)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Division of geographical regions in China (A). Total infection rate of each province in China, with the box plot showing the infection rate by region (B). High-risk HPV infection rate of each province in China, with the box plot showing the infection rate by region (C). Low-risk HPV infection rate of each province in China, with the box plot showing the infection rate by region (D)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Supplementary concepts