The interleukin 1 receptor, type I (IL1R1) is important in the pathogenesis of cancer. We investigated whether single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of IL1R1 contribute to the development of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), in addition to the clinicopathological features such as the size, number, location, extrathyroidal invasion and metastasis of PTC. Three promoter SNPs (rs949963 -615G/A, rs2192752 -1028A/C and rs3917225 -1099A/G) in IL1R1 were genotyped using direct sequencing in 118 patients with PTC and 347 controls. The odds ratio (OR), 95% confidence interval (CI) and P value were analysed using SNPStats and SNPAnalyzer Pro. For the exact results, Fisher's exact test and Bonferroni correction (P(c)) were performed. The three promoter SNPs of IL1R1 were not associated with PTC development. For the clinicopathological features of PTC, rs2192752 was associated with location (one lobe versus both lobes): dominant model, OR = 3.11, 95% CI = 1.39-6.96, P(c) = 0.015; log-additive model, OR = 2.79, 95% CI = 1.38-5.66, P(c) = 0.0087. The C allele frequency of rs2192752 was higher in the both lobes group (28.0%) than the one lobe group (12.3%) (OR = 2.77, 95% CI = 1.40-5.48, P(c) = 0.009). However, rs949963 and rs3917225 were not correlated with clinicopathological features including location of PTC. The IL1R1 promoter SNP rs2192752 may contribute to the location of PTC, and the C allele of rs2192752 may be a risk factor for the development of PTC in both lobes.