It has a worldwide distribution but is most common in Central and Latin America, Mexico, Asia, Africa, Spain, Portugal, and Eastern Europe.
Humans are the only definitive hosts of T. solium.
The ingested cysticerci attach to the jejunum where they mature into adult tapeworms. The tapeworm sheds gravid proglottids into the stool. The life cycle is then complete, with the human acting as definitive host and the pig as intermediate host. Humans, however, may become accidental intermediate hosts by ingesting products which are fecally contaminated with T. solium eggs, either shed in a food handler's feces or in their own feces if they are infected by the adult tapeworm. If the resulting larvae encyst in the brain, neurocysticercosis develops.