Presently, the construction of urban utility tunnels is booming, and seismic demand for tunnel structures is also prominent. Hence, the seismic analysis development of utility tunnels is reviewed. First, the seismic damage characteristics of utility tunnel structures in historical seismic damage cases are comprehensively summarized, the influencing factors of the seismic response of the utility tunnel are analyzed, and the development history and important breakthroughs of seismic research on utility tunnel around the world are presented in detail. Second, the current status and shortcomings of the research on the influence mechanism of key elements (input ground motion characteristics, engineering site characteristics, structural type, and structural characteristics of utility tunnel) on the seismic response of utility tunnels are discussed. Finally, the research progress of seismic isolation for utility tunnels is introduced. It is concluded from the literature review that: (1) Seismic input characteristics have significant influences on seismic responses of utility tunnels, and the surface Rayleigh wave should be considered in the seismic design for shallowburied tunnel structures. (2) Current studies related to engineering site characteristics should focus on the impact of adverse geological conditions, such as saturated liquefaction soils or fractured faults on seismic response of utility tunnels. (3) New structural types or joint characteristics are constantly emerging, but current seismic studies of utility tunnels mainly focus on the seismic response characteristics of the tunnel structure. Therefore, subsequent research should pay more attention to seismic safety requirements on the function of utility tunnels and further strengthen the research on seismic performance design method and corresponding index system for "structurefunction" utility tunnels.