The relationship between XRCC1 polymorphisms and bladder cancer has been widely studied. Here, our meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the correlations between common genetic polymorphisms in XRCC1 and susceptibility to bladder cancer. In order to derive a more precise estimation of the association, 27 clinical case-control studies (which met all the inclusion criteria) were included in this meta-analysis. A total of 8,539 cancer cases and 10,750 controls were involved in this meta-analysis. Overall, no significant association was detected in allelic model (A allele vs T allele odds ratio [OR] = 0.87, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.71-1.06), homozygote comparison (AA vs GG OR = 1.12, 95% CI, 0.68-1.85), heterozygote comparison (AT vs TT OR = 1.01, 95% CI, 0.81-1.26), dominant model (AA + AG vs GG OR = 0.93, 95% CI, 0.85-1.02), and recessive model (AA vs AG + GG OR = 1.01, 95% CI, 0.88-1.15), but a moderately significant association was found for AG vs GG (OR = 0.241, 95% CI = 0.17-0.35). Subgroup analysis based on ethnicity. Ethnicity analysis suggested that genetic polymorphisms in XRCC1 were not correlated with increased bladder cancer risk among Asians (all P. 0.05). Therefore, we concluded that XRCC1 genetic polymorphism may not contribute to bladder cancer susceptibility in the present meta-analysis, and further well-designed studies with a large sample size are warranted to validate our conclusion.