Recurrence rates of diabetic foot ulcers vary widely in the published literature. The aim of this systematic review is to estimate recurrence rates of diabetic foot ulcers. We did a PubMed search and performed a review of reference lists for studies reporting recurrence of diabetic foot ulcers. The weighted relative risk (RR) and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) for recurrence was estimated. Forty‐nine studies reporting recurrence of diabetic foot ulcers were included. A pooled estimate for recurrence rate was 22.1% per person‐year (py) (95% CI, 19.0‐25.2%). Recurrence rate was 24.9% per py in Europe (95% CI, 20.0%‐29.7%), 17.8% per py in North America (95% CI, 12.7%‐22.9%), 16.9% per py in Africa (95% CI, 4.7%‐29.0%), and 17.0% per py in Asia (95% CI, 11.1%‐23.0%). Turkey had the highest recurrence rate of 44.4% per py (95% CI, 24.9%‐63.9%), and Bangladesh had the lowest of 4.3% per py (95% CI, 2.3%‐6.3%). Recurrence rates of diabetic foot ulcers before 2002, between 2002 and 2008, and after 2008 were 22.2% per py (95% CI, 17.6%‐26.8%), 21.9% per py (95% CI, 17.0%‐26.8%), and 21.8% per py (95% CI, 16.3%‐27.2%), respectively. Recurrence rates of diabetic foot ulcers are high. Recurrence rates vary widely in different regions and have decreased recently. More attention towards recurrence of diabetic foot ulcers is urgently required.