The increasing rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus may lead to increased prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We aimed to determine the current and recent trends on the global and regional prevalence of NAFLD.

Systematic search from inception to March 26, 2020 was performed without language restrictions. Two authors independently performed screening and data extraction. We performed meta-regression to determine trends in NAFLD prevalence.

We identified 17,244 articles from literature search and included 245 eligible studies involving 5,399,254 individuals. The pooled global prevalence of NAFLD was 29.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 28.6%–31.1%); of these, 82.5% of included articles used ultrasound to diagnose NAFLD, with prevalence of 30.6% (95% CI, 29.2%–32.0%). South America (3 studies, 5716 individuals) and North America (4 studies, 18,236 individuals) had the highest NAFLD prevalence at 35.7% (95% CI, 34.0%–37.5%) and 35.3% (95% CI, 25.4%–45.9%), respectively. From 1991 to 2019, trend analysis showed NAFLD increased from 21.9% to 37.3% (yearly increase of 0.7%, P < .0001), with South America showing the most rapid change of 2.7% per year, followed by Europe at 1.1%.

Despite regional variation, the global prevalence of NAFLD is increasing overall. Policy makers must work toward reversing the current trends by increasing awareness of NAFLD and promoting healthy lifestyle environments.