Survivin is a promising marker for the diagnosis of bladder cancer. The accuracy and clinical value of urinary survivin mRNA expression were compared with urine cytology, which is the standard diagnostic method for bladder cancer. Scientific databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library and China National Knowledge Infrastructure, were searched in order to find studies that examined urinary survivin mRNA expression and urine cytology in the diagnosis of bladder cancer. Quality assessment was performed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 tool in Revman 5.3 and data analysis was conducted using Stata/MP. The I-2 statistic was used to evaluate heterogeneity and Deeks' funnel plot was generated to assess the possibility of publication bias. A total of 15 studies that evaluated a total of 1,624 patients were included in the present meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivity and specificity values for the detection of urinary survivin mRNA expression in the diagnosis of bladder cancer were 0.86 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.81-0.90] and 0.95 (95% CI, 0.93-0.96), respectively. Regarding urine cytology, the pooled sensitivity and specificity values were 0.42 (95% CI, 0.36-0.48) and 1.00 (95% CI, 0.98-1.00), respectively. Furthermore, the differences in pooled sensitivity were statistically significant in the diagnosis of grade 1 and 2 bladder tumors. Summary receiver operating characteristic curve values for urinary survivin mRNA expression and urine cytology were 0.95 (95% CI, 0.93-0.97) and 0.86 (95% CI, 0.83-0.89), respectively. Urinary survivin mRNA expression was also more accurate compared with other diagnostic indicators, including positive likelihood ratios, negative likelihood ratios, diagnostic odds ratios and Youden's index. Compared with traditional urine cytology, urinary survivin mRNA detection using reverse transcription-PCR was identified to be more effective in the diagnosis of early bladder cancer.