[Objective] In the recent 30 years, rice has been cultivated extensively in China, involving a great variety of soil types, farming systems and fertilization methods. No matter where it is cultivated, soil phosphorus(P)seems to be a major factor limiting rice production due to its strong P adsorption and fixation capacity of the soil colloids in the paddy fields and low phosphate fertilizer utilization rate of the crop, which consequently leads to accumulation of the element in the soil. The objective of this study was to evaluate utilization and balance of P in the five major rice production regions of the country, which may provide certain scientific bases for recommending rational application of phosphate fertilizer by regions.[Method] Based on the long-term field experiments, starting from 1988, in the five major rice growing regions(i.e. Northeast of China(NE), Yangtze River Delta (YRD), Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River (MYR), South of China (SC) and Southwest of China (SW)), which are significantly different in soil and climate, data were cited from a total of 130 paddy soil monitoring sites scattered in the five regions for comparison and summarization. The data included available P content, and P utilization efficiency, P recovery rate, P agronomic efficiency and soil P balance.[Result] Results show significant differences between the regions in soil available P content. SC was the highest (33.71 mg·kg^-1) and SW the lowest (12.49 mg·kg^-1). The average content of soil available P of the country was 21.18 mg kg^-1, and grew at a rate of 0.36 mg·kg^-1·a^-1. Soil available P content increased significantly with the cultivation going on in all the regions, expect in MYR. All the five regions gained in soil phosphate, with SC being the highest in P surplus. The average annual soil phosphate surplus of the country was 35.03 kg·hm^-2 that accounted for 44.16% of the average phosphate fertilizer input. Moreover, a significant positive relationship was observed between soil available P content and the cumulative P surplus (P<0.05). With every 100 kg·hm^-2 increment in average P surplus, soil available P content increased by 0.82 mg·kg^-1. P recovery rate and agronomic efficiency also significantly increased at a varying in rate with the farming going on in all the five regions, and the highest rates were observed in SW, being 35.92% and 69.02 kg·kg^-1, respectively.[Conclusion] Affected by the 30-year long-term fertilization, soil available P content and cumulative P surplus has increased significantly in all the regions with the rice cultivation going on. However, the variation of P recovery rate and P agronomic efficiency differs from region to region. From all the findings in this study, it is concluded that the fertilization system for each region should be modified in the light of the budgeting of soil phosphorus of the respective locality. For example, in Southwest China, more phosphate fertilizer, especially organic fertilizer should be applied to ensure the normal phosphate supply to meet the demand of the rice crop, while in South China, P fertilization should be reduced in rate, but improved in P utilization efficiency, so as to mitigate the risk of P non-point source pollution.