Background: Physical activity has a protective effect on some types of cancer. The aim of the present meta- analysis was to explore the literature on the association between physical activity and risk of lymphoma. Methods: A meta-analysis was conducted for cohort and case–control studies examining the association betweenself-reportedphysicalactivityandriskoflymphoma.Dependingonstatisticalheterogeneity,arandomor fixed effects model was used to estimate the summary OR and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI). Results:Sevencase–controlstudiesand5cohortstudieswereincluded.Whendatafrombothstudydesigns werecombined,nosignificantinfluenceofphysicalactivityonriskoflymphomawasfound(pooledOR¼0.90; 95% CI: 0.79–1.02; P ¼ 0.10). Subgroup analysis revealed a significant protective influence of physical activity on risk of lymphoma in case–control studies (pooled OR ¼ 0.81; 95% CI: 0.68–0.96; P ¼ 0.02). In contrast, cohort studies, which have a higher level of evidence than case–control studies, confirm the results of the primary meta-analysis(pooledOR ¼1.02;95%CI:0.88–1.19;P¼0.76).Asubsequentsubgroupanalysisfound no significant differences between results for Hodgkin lymphoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (c 2 ¼ 0.16; P ¼ 0.69), nor between results for recreational and occupational activities (c 2 ¼ 1.01; P ¼ 0.31). Conclusions: Epidemiologic research indicates no significant influence of physical activity on risk of lymphoma.