Objective To understand the prevalence and the characteristics of its course of subthreshold anxiety. Methods Databases including Cochrane Library， PubMed， Embase， Web of Science CNKI and WangFang database were included. The retrieval time was from inception to June 2nd，2020. All related literature was retrieved for meta analysis. Results A total of 18 studies with 131 027 participants were included. The piont， year and lifetime prevalence rate of subthreshold anxiety was 3.8%、4.8% and 7.2% respectively. The results about the course of subthreshold anxiety showed that 10.5% had progressed to anxiety disorder， 29% had persistent subthreshold anxiety and 57.3%-80.8% had symptom relief during follow-up. Subgroup analysis showed female are at higher risk than male in time， year， and lifetime prevalence （RR： 1.8-2.3， 1.9， 1.2-1.6 respectively）， but the prevalence obtained by different sampling methods are not significantly different （P＞ 0.05）. On the other hand， the time point prevalence rates of different countries and different diagnostic tools （ICD/DSM） showed statistical differences （prevalence rate： 2.0%-6.1%， 3.0%-5.2% respectively）， and the lifetime prevalence rates of different countries， different diagnostic tools （ICD/DSM） and different research types （cross-sectional/cohort studies） showed statistical differences （prevalence rate： 0.6%- 10.3%， 10.3%-18.9%， 1.9%-10.3% respectively）. Conclusions The prevalence of subthreshold anxiety is low and affected by many factors， but its course development is diverse.