Background Coronary heart diseases (CHD) have been identified as one of topmost diseases affecting the Chinese population. However, depression in CHD has not been reported and there are limited high quality empirical studies in China focused on the prevalence of the comorbidity. This study aimed to estimate the pooled prevalence of depression with CHD in China. Methods Systematic review and meta-analysis of published epidemiologic studies on the depression in CHD patients in China were conducted. The research findings dated before 30 September 2013 were obtained from Ovid Medline, EMBASE and two Chinese electronic publication libraries WANFANG and CNKI. We used "cardiovascular disease", "depression" and "China" as the search themes in Ovid Medline and EMBASE and "cardiovascular disease" and "depression" in WANFANG and CNKI. Random-effects meta-analysis was used to estimate the prevalence of depression in CHD patients. Results Twenty-seven studies were included in the review. Twenty-three studies had 5 236 participants who were hospitalized and four studies had 1 353 participants from community. The overall prevalence of depression in CHD from hospital was 51% (95% CI: 0.43, 0.58; l-squared=97%, P=0.000).The prevalence of depression in CHD from community ranged between 34.6% to 45.8%, and the severe depression was found ranging between 3.1% to 11.2%. Conclusions On comparing data with other countries, the prevalence of depression in CHD among admitted patients in China was found to be high. The physicians and healthcare providers should pay more attention to the "physical-mental" health of the CHD patients.