Abstract: The total solar irradiance (TSI) impinging on the Earth has a slight variation of approximate 11-year period, which is expected to affect the variability of the Earth climate system. Researches have found correlations between sea surface temperature or ocean heat content of local ocean basins and the 11-year TSI time series. However, the response of the upper ocean to the 11-year solar cycle is not spatially uniform, and the response mechanism is still open to debate. No region has even been identified to have a clear 11-year variation in its sea surface temperature or ocean heat content yet. We analysed the ocean heat content (OHC) in upper-700-m of the global ocean from NOAA and JMA datasets, respectively. Composite mean difference method is used to obtain the response pattern of OHC to the 11-year solar activity. The two datasets give rather similar results. We select a positive response area and a negative one in the Pacific and fi nd a significant 11-year variation in the upper 700-m OHC in these two regions.