BackgroundThe effect of urbanization on the morbidity of hepatitis A remains unclear. We aimed to estimate the association between various urbanization-related indices and hepatitis A morbidity in China.MethodsData on the annual morbidity of hepatitis A, urbanization-related measures (i.e., gross domestic product per capita, the number of hospitalization beds per 1000 persons, illiteracy rate, tap water coverage, motor vehicles per 100 persons, population density, and the proportion of arable land), and meteorological factors in 31 provincial-level administrative divisions of Chinese mainland during 2005–2018 were collected from the National Population and Health Science Data Sharing Platform, China Statistical Yearbooks, and the China Meteorological Data Sharing Service System, respectively. Generalized linear mixed models were applied to quantify the impacts of different urbanization-related indices on the morbidity of hepatitis A in China after adjusting for covariates.ResultsA total of 537,466 hepatitis A cases were reported in China during 2005–2018. The annual morbidity had a decline of 79.4% from 5.64 cases to 1.16 cases per 100,000 people. There were obvious spatial variations with higher morbidity in western China. Nationally, gross domestic product per capita and the number of hospitalization beds per 1000 persons increased from 14,040 to 64,644 CNY and from 2.45 to 6.03 during 2005–2018, respectively. The illiteracy rate decreased from 11.0 to 4.9%. Gross domestic product per capita [relative risk (RR) = 0.96, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.92–0.99], and the number of hospitalization beds per 1000 persons (RR= 0.79, 95%CI: 0.75–0.83) were associated with the declined morbidity of hepatitis A. By contrast, the increased morbidity of hepatitis A was linked to the illiteracy rate (RR= 1.04, 95%CI: 1.02–1.06). Similar influential factors were detected for children and adults, with greater effects witnessed for children.ConclusionsPeople in the western region suffered the heaviest burden of hepatitis A in Chinese mainland. Nationally, there was a sharp decline in the morbidity of hepatitis A. The urbanization process was associated with the reduction of hepatitis A morbidity in China during 2005–2018.Graphical AbstractSupplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40249-023-01104-0.