Objectives To systematically review the efficacy of mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) for partial pulpotomy in cariously exposed pulps of young permanent teeth. Methods Databases including PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, CNKI, CBM and WanFang Data were searched to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on mineral trioxide aggregate for partial pulpotomy in cariously exposed pulps of young permanent teeth from inception to February 2017. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed by RevMan 5.3 software. Results A total of three RCTs including 199 teeth were eventually included. The results of meta-analysis showed that: there were no statistically significant differences in efficacy between the MTA group and the calcium hydroxide treatment groups at time points of 3, 6, 12, 24 and over 24 months. None of three studies reported adverse events. Conclusions The current study shows that MTA and calcium hydroxide have similar short-term and long-term clinical efficacy in cariously exposed pulps of young permanent teeth, but more high quality and large-scale studies are required to verify the above conclusion.