Abstract: Maternal anemia is a key factor leading to maternal mortality and adverse pregnancy outcomes, and it is still at a relatively high level of epidemic globally. In order to reduce the prevalence of maternal anemia and improve the health of mothers and children, the governments around the world have successively issued a number of policies, strategies and measures, and proposed goals of prevention and control. However, due to the differences in many existing studies worldwide in terms of diagnostic criteria and research subjects, maternal anemia is prevalent at a wide range of area, which brings difficulties to the formulation of policies and evaluation of existing strategies and measures in China. This article summarizes the progress of diagnosis and prevalence of maternal anemia, aiming to provide evidence and new ideas for further researches.