The role of gestational hypertensive disorders, which includes both pre-eclampsia and gestational hypertension, in the development of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) has been controversial. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis is to evaluate the association between gestational hypertensive disoders and ROP. Eligible studies published up to June 5, 2016 were identified from MEDLINE and EMBASE that evaluated the association between the two conditions. Totally 1142 published records were retrieved for screening, 925 of them eligible for detailed evaluation. Finally 19 studies involving 45281 infants with 5388 cases of ROP met our criteria for meta-analysis. Gestational hypertensive disorders were not associated with ROP (unadjusted OR: 0.89; P = 0.38; adjusted OR: 1.35; P = 0.18). Subgroup analyses also revealed no significant association between ROP with pre-eclampsia (unadjusted OR: 0.85; P = 0.29; adjusted OR:1.29; P = 0.28) or with gestational hypertension (unadjusted OR: 1.10; P = 0.39; adjusted OR: 1.25; P = 0.60) separately. Sensitivity analysis indicated our results were robust. We concluded no significant association between gestational hypertensive disorders and ROP. More large scale well-conducted prospective cohorts on the topic are needed.