The rapid increase in the detection rate of thyroid cancer over the past few decades has caused some unexpected economic burdens. However, that of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) seems to have had the opposite trend, which is worthy of further comprehensive exploration.The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results 18 database was used to identify patients with PTC diagnosed during 2003-2017. The incidence trends were analyzed using joinpoint analysis and an age-period-cohort model.The overall PTC incidence rate increased from 9.9 to 16.1 per 100 000 between 2003 and 2017. The joinpoint analysis indicated that the incidence growth rate began to slow down in 2009 (annual percentage change [APC] = 3.1%, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.9%-4.4%). After reaching its peak in 2015, it began to decrease by 2.8% (95% CI = -4.6% to -1.0%) per year. The stratified analysis indicated that the incidence patterns of different sexes, age groups, races, and tumor stages and sizes had similar downward trends, including for the localized (APC = -4.5%, 95% CI = -7% to -1.9%) and distant (APC = -1.3%, 95% CI = -2.7% to -.1%) stages, and larger tumors (APC = -4%, 95% CI = -12% to 4.7%). The age-period-cohort model indicated a significant period effect on PTC, which gradually weakened after 2008-2012. The cohort effect indicates that the risk of late birth cohorts is gradually stabilizing and lower than that of early birth cohorts.The analysis results of the recent downward trend and period effect for the incidence of each subgroup further support the important role of correcting overdiagnosis in reducing the prevalence of PTC. Future research needs to analyze more-recent data to verify these downward trends.