Published data regarding the association between the apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1) Asp148Glu polymorphism and bladder cancer risk showed inconclusive results. This meta-analysis of literatures was performed to draw a more precise estimation of the relationship. We systematically searched PubMed, Embase, Elsevier and Springer for relevant articles with a time limit of Jan. 2012. The strength of association between APE1 Asp148Glu polymorphism and bladder cancer risk was assessed by odds ratio (OR) with the corresponding 95 % confidence interval (95 % CI) using the software STATA(version10.0).A total of 11 case-control studies including 4,292 cases and 4,761 controls based on the search criteria were included for analysis. Overall, for GG versus TT, the pooled OR was 0.952 (95 % CI = 0.778-1.166), for the the G allele carriers (TG + GG) versus homozygote TT, the pooled OR was 0.984 (95 % CI = 0.897-1.078). In the stratified analysis by ethnicity, significantly risks were not found among Asians for GG versus TT (OR = 0.469; 95 % CI = 0.162-1.357) nor (TG + GG) versus TT (OR = 0.921, 95 % CI = 0.742-1.143). Similarly, for non-Asians, significantly risks were also not found for GG versus TT (OR = 0.992; 95 % CI = 0.861-1.144) nor (TG + GG) versus TT (OR = 1.010, 95 % CI = 0.897-1.137). This meta-analysis suggested that the APE1 T1349G (Asp148Glu) polymorphism was not associated with bladder cancer risk among Asians nor non-Asians.