<p>The promotion of K-12 students’ interest in science is a widely recognized educational goal, yet the factors contributing to its development and maintenance are varied. Our meta-analysis comprehensively examines the literature on factors influencing K-12 students’ interest in science, identifying 52 articles encompassing 68 distinct studies published from 2004 to 2023. We found that cognitive activation and support(<i>r</i> = 0.484), perseverance and effort to learn science(<i>r</i> = 0.446), self-efficacy(<i>r</i> = 0.431), out-of-school science experiences(<i>r</i> = 0.410), enjoyment of science(<i>r</i> = 0.406) and other factors are significantly correlated with K-12 students’ interest in science. Our study further indicates that these relationships may be moderated by publication year, geographical region of the datasets, and type of interest, and there are some interesting findings. For instance, the impact of Gender is moderated by both the publication year and the geographical region of the datasets. These findings offer insights into factors that likely promote and sustain interest in science among K-12 students and present implications for the development of educational strategies and policies.</p>