This meta‑analysis aims to evaluate the possible association between human papillomavirus (HPV) and colorectal cancer development. The search strategy was a logic applied to specific descriptors linked to Boolean operators (AND/OR). The searches were made at the PubMed, Web of Science, and Scientific Electronic Library Online databases, between 2005 and 2017. A total of 2937 patients were included in the study, where 1562 (53.2%) diagnosed with colorectal carcinoma and 1375 (46.8%) control samples from tissues without carcinoma. In patients with colorectal carcinoma, HPV was detected in 424 (27.1%) samples, but in the remaining 1138 (72.9%) patients, there was no detection of this virus. Among patients with healthy tissue, 129 (9.4%) samples were positive to HPV and 1246 (90.6%) samples were negative for the virus, with a significant statistical difference between the two groups (P < 0.0001). By combining all the results from the included studies, it was observed that HPV‑positive patients presented with six times more chance to develop colorectal cancer when compared to those HPV-negative (odds ratio [OR] =6.398; confidence interval [CI] 95% =3.025–13.533; P < 0.0001). Asia was the continent with the smaller probability to develop colorectal cancer, with three times more chances of the patients with HPV to develop colon and rectum carcinomas, although no statistic relevance was found (OR = 3.270; CI 95% =0.899–11.890; P = 0.0721). This meta‑analysis showed a correlation between the HPV and the enhanced probability to develop colorectal carcinoma, highlighting geographic variations that show as important to public health.