By considering environmental factors in the earliest stage of decision-making, strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is seen as an important preventive measure to realize sustainable development. Despite a great expansion of SEA effectiveness research in the past 10 years, no study statistically reviews how frequently the evaluation criteria are adopted. The present meta-analysis considers 68 academic papers published from 2009 to 2019, with 41 articles relating to the international context and 27 relating to China. After ascertaining the number of times each criterion is mentioned, the adoption frequency is calculated and a comparison is made between the Chinese and international contexts. The result reveals that the criteria adopted in studies evaluating China's SEA largely accord with those used to evaluate international SEA. Both focus on procedural and contextual effectiveness. The distribution of substantive and normative effectiveness evaluation criteria is very similar. However, the significant differences lie in the criteria of assessment methods and communication, which are all of the drawbacks influencing SEA implementation in China. In addition, the problems of China's SEA pointed out by past scholars are statistically analyzed. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;00:1–10. © 2021 SETAC