Objective To systematically review the rate of sleep deprivation in children and adolescents in China from 2004 to 2019. Methods PubMed, The Cochrane Library, EMbase, Web of Science, CBM, CNKI and WanFang Data databases were searched to collect cross-sectional studies on the sleep deprivation rate of children and adolescents in China from inception to July 15th, 2021. Two researchers independently screened literature, extracted data and evaluated the risk of bias of the included studies. Meta-analysis was then performed by using Stata 15.0 software. Results A total of 45 cross-sectional studies were included, with a total sample size of 769 918 participants, of whom 587 457 reported sleep deprivation. The results of meta-analysis showed that the sleep deprivation rate of Chinese children and adolescents was 61% (95%CI 55% to 68%). Subgroup analysis indicated that the sleep deprivation rates were 62% for female children and 59% for male children. The rate was 84% in junior high school, 80% in high school and 64% in primary school. The rates in south China, southwest China, northwest China, north China, east China and central China were 68%, 62%, 61%, 57%, 57% and 54%, respectively. The rate of sleep deficiency based on "health requirements for daily study time of primary and junior school students" was the highest at 74% (95% CI 70% to 79%). The cumulative meta-analysis by time showed that the sleep deprivation rate had gradually stabilized and approached 60% since 2011. Conclusion Current evidence shows that the sleep deprivation rate of Chinese children and adolescents is high. Due to the limited quality and quantity of included studies, more high-quality studies are needed to verify the above conclusion.