Background The increasing prevalence of colonic diverticula likely correlated with aging and shift to western lifestyle in Oriental countries over past decades. However, limited data about the distribution and endoscopic characteristics of colonic diverticula are available until now. We aimed to evaluate the number, size, depth and location of colonic diverticula in our study population. Methods We collected data from patients who underwent colonoscopy at the endoscopy center of Tianjin Medical University General Hospital and Bao Di Clinical College of Tianjin Medical University. Any colon diverticula was carefully assessed and recorded. Associations between participant characteristics and colonic diverticula were determined by using logistic regression model. Results A total of 27021applicable patients were retrieved from our colonoscopy database, with 1529 participants (5.67%) present with one or more diverticulosis. Patients with colonic diverticula (mean age: 58.6) were significantly older and showed male preponderance than those without diverticula. Right-sided, left-sided and bilateral diverticulosis were found in 1161 (76.0%), 170 (11.1%) and 198cases (12.9%), respectively. The patients with right-sided diverticula (mean age: 55.2) which were frequently in male were younger than those with left-sided diverticula (mean age: 67.1, P < 0.05) which were frequently in female (P<0.001). Participants represented aged ≥ 60years old (OR:4.32, P<0.001) and bilateral diverticulosis (OR:21.2,P<0.001) had an increased odds of having a greater burden . Conclusion the colonic diverticula were predominantly right-sided, male, and older age in northern China. Of these, patients with right-sided diverticulosis were younger than those with left-sided ones. The emergence of crowed was more likely observed in the individuals with aged over than 60 years old and bilateral distributed pattern.