Sepsis is a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection. However, as a syndrome caused by underlying infection, the global burden of disease research data is still relatively limited. This study is the first to use data from the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD2017) to assess the incidence and mortality of sepsis globally, in different regions and countries. The study included 282 potential causes of death from sepsis in 109 million death records in GBD2017, using a mixed-effect linear regression model to model different factors such as age, sex, location, and year (1990 – 2017). The results showed that a total of about 48.9 million sepsis events were reported globally in 2017, of which 11 million related deaths occurred, accounting for 19.7% of all deaths globally. Age-standardized sepsis rates decreased by 37.0% and mortality by 52.8% in 2017 compared to 1990. Despite the decline in age-standardized morbidity and mortality, sepsis remains a major threat to global health, and the burden of disease is particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa.