Background: Scabies is an infectious inflammatory skin disease, and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is also an immune‑medicated inflammatory disease. Immune‑mediated inflammatory processes result in the pathophysiologic mechanism in both diseases. Only a few studies have investigated the possible association between scabies and RA. Methods: This nationwide population‑based study included 5135 patients with scabies as the study group; 19,115 people chosen from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan formed a control group. We tracked patients in both groups for 7 years to identify newly diagnosed cases of RA. Demographic characteristics and comorbidities were analyzed. Cox proportional hazards regressions were performed to calculate the hazard ratio (HR) of RA during the 7‑year follow‑up period. Results: Of the 24,250 patients enrolled in this study, 217 (0.9%) were diagnosed with RA during the 7‑year follow‑up period; 61 (1.2%) were from the scabies group and 156 (0.8%) were from the control group. The data showed that patients with scabies had a higher risk of subsequent RA, with an HR of 1.46 (95% confidence interval = 1.09–1.96). Conclusions: The results indicated an increased risk for RA among the patients with scabies infections. The data also showed that the assessment of RA symptoms should be included in the long‑term follow‑up of patients with scabies.