Zhong L, et al. - Given that systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare debilitating autoimmune disease of the connective tissue, researchers evaluated the recent prevalence and incidence of SSc across the world. PubMed/MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched to identify relevant studies published between 2006 and 2016 using a systematic search strategy. Using a random-effects model, the pooled prevalence of SSc was calculated by meta-analysis. Using the initial search strategy, 1,364 references were retrieved and 20 epidemiological publications were selected for extraction of data. The studies found recorded prevalence ranging from 3.8 per 100,000 in Taiwan to 50 per 100,000 in the United States. The prevalence was 23 per 100,000 in a pooled sample of 11,574 people. SSc incidence rate ranges from 0.77 per 100,000 person-years in the Netherlands to 5.6 per 100,000 person-years in the USA. Among women with higher prevalence and incidence rates, SSc predominates. Taking into account the methodological differences in deriving these estimates, the epidemiological data must be interpreted with caution.