Objective To analyze the incidence and mortality of gastric cancer in countries and territories with different human development index (HDI) levels in 2022, and to understand the burden of gastric cancer globally and in China. Methods Data on gastric cancer incidence and mortality were collected from GLOBOCAN 2022 and HDI data for all countries were obtained from the Human development report 2022. Spearman correlation was applied to examine the associations between the age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR), age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR), mortality-to-incidence ratio (M/I), and HDI for gastric cancer. The Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to assess the differences in ASIR and ASMR between males and females. Results In 2022, gastric cancer ranked the 5^th in both incidence and mortality among all cancer types globally. In China, gastric cancer ranked the 5^th in incidence and the 3^rd in mortality among all cancer types. The ASIR and ASMR of gastric cancer showed a descending trend from high, very high, medium to low HDI countries and territories. The ASIR of gastric cancer was positively correlated with HDI (r_s＝0.256, P＝0.001), while ASMR showed no significant correlation with HDI (r_s＝－0.008，P＝0.918). The M/I was negatively correlated with HDI (r_s＝－0.831, P＜0.001). The ASIR and ASMR of gastric cancer in males were significantly higher than those in females globally, in China, and across all HDI groups (all P＜0.05). Globally, both ASIR and ASMR of gastric cancer remained relatively stable before the age of 45, but showed a consistently rising trend after the age of 45. In China, the ASIR and ASMR of gastric cancer exceeded global average level across all age groups. Conclusion The burden of gastric cancer incidence and mortality is higher in very high and high HDI countries and territories compared to medium and low HDI countries and territories. In China, the burden of gastric cancer incidence and mortality is above the global average, highlighting the need for targeted prevention and control measures.