Epigenetic silencing of tumor suppressor genes by promoter methylation plays vital roles in the process of carcinogenesis. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to determine whether the aberrant methylation of cyclin A1 (CCNA1) may be of great significance to human malignant tumors. By searching both English and Chinese language-based electronic databases carefully, we tabulated and analyzed parameters from each study. All human-associated case-control studies were included providing available data for CCNA1 methylation and reporting the adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) conducted with the use of Version 12.0 STATA software. A total of 10 case-control studies (619 patients with cancers and 292 healthy controls) were included for the following statistical analysis. Pooled OR values from all articles revealed that the frequency of CCNA1 methylation in cancer tissues was significantly higher than those of normal tissues (P < 0.001). Further ethnicity indicated that the frequency of CCNA1 methylation was correlated with the development of malignant tumors among all those included experimental subgroups (all P < 0.05). These data from results indicated a significant connection of CCNA1 methylation with poor progression in human malignant tumors among both Caucasian and Asian populations.