Objective To investigate the incidence of femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FAI) in recruits and analyze the related factors. Methods A total of 1 958 recruits were selected, and the recruits with hip joint and peripheral pain as the main symptoms were treated. Recruits with FAI were screened out based on the medical history, imaging examination and physical examination results. And the X-ray results were evaluated by the alpha angle and center-edge (CE) angle. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the relationships between general data (gender, age, height, weight, body mass index ［BMI］, smoking history, and drinking history) and disease status. Results The incidence of FAI was 11.13% (218/1 958) among the recruits during training. The incidence of FAI in recruits was related to gender (P＝0.020), but not related to age, height, weight, BMI, smoking history or drinking history (all P＞0.05). Female soldiers have higher risk of FAI than male soldiers (odds ratio＝1.903，95% confidence interval 1.107-3.269). Male soldiers mainly showed cam-type, while female soldiers mainly showed pincer-type. Training subjects such as 3 000-m running and tactical movements involving highly frequent hip flexion movements were the main predisposing factors for the onset of FAI. Conclusion FAI has a high incidence among recruits. The incidence risk of females is higher than that of their male counterparts. Training programs including frequently excessive hip flexion are the main causative factors.