TP53 Arg72Pro polymorphism has been proposed to have some effects on host's susceptibility to cancer. Several studies were published to assess the association between TP53 Arg72Pro polymorphism and thyroid carcinoma, but they reported controversial results. We performed a systemic review and meta-analysis to assess the association between TP53 Arg72Pro polymorphism and thyroid carcinoma. Odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was used to assess the association. Fourteen individual studies with 3,483 subjects were finally included into the meta-analysis. Overall, there was an obvious association between TP53 Arg72Pro polymorphism and thyroid carcinoma under the recessive model (ProPro vs. ArgArg/ArgPro, OR = 2.02, 95% CI 1.13 to 3.62, P = 0.02). Subgroup analysis by race showed that TP53 Arg72Pro polymorphism was associated with thyroid carcinoma in Caucasians (ProPro vs. ArgArg/ArgPro, OR = 2.31, 95% CI 1.08 to 4.93, P = 0.03). Subgroup analysis by histological type showed that TP53 Arg72Pro polymorphism was not associated with a risk of different types of thyroid carcinoma. In summary, the meta-analysis suggests that TP53 Arg72Pro polymorphism is associated with thyroid carcinoma risk in Caucasians. Besides, more studies with large sample size are needed to further assess the associations above.