To investigate and grasp the incidence of bone and joint tumors and tumor-like lesions in Guilin, South China. Methods The collaborative group conducted statistics on bone and joint tumors and tumor-like lesions in nearly 30 hospitals at all levels in Guilin from 1987 to 2007. The total number of cases was 2317, including 947 benign bone tumors (40.87%), 135 giant cell tumors of bone (5.83%), 470 primary malignant bone tumors (20.28%), 484 bone metastases (20.89%), 175 bone tumor-like lesions (7.55%), and 106 joint and synovial tumors and disease-like lesions (4.57%). Benign bone tumors were most common in 551 cases (58.18%), followed by osteoma (14.15%) and chondrosarcoma (13.83%). Primary malignant bone tumors were more common in 183 cases (38.94%) of osteosarcoma and 175 cases (37.23%) of myeloma, followed by chondrosarcoma (6.4%). Bone tumor-like lesions were more common in 70 cases (40%) of bone fibrodysplasia and 66 cases (37.71%) of bone cysts. Most patients with bone tumors were more male than female, with a predilection for 11-30 years of age and a predilection for the femur and tibia. Conclusion The results were more similar to the domestic and international literature. The relatively high number of a few diseases was related to the scope of collection.