Emerald is a precious colored gemstone, and its origin has a significant impact on the evaluation of its value. The identification of the origin of emerald has become an important technology in gemstone laboratories and a research hotspot in the field of gemology. The inclusion, spectral characteristics, and chemical composition of emerald are commonly used and critical information for origin determination. However, with the accumulation of research data on the origin of emerald, traditional methods for origin determination are facing challenges. This article systematically summarizes and analyzes the gemological characteristics, inclusion information, spectral features, and major and trace element data of emeralds from various occurrences around the world. Based on a review of previous research results, it systematically elucidates the current research status of emerald origin determination, summarizes the gemological characteristics and inclusion characteristics, reveals the component fingerprint of emeralds from each occurrence, and uses case studies to illustrate the methods of distinguishing common and important origins of emeralds. Although the comparison at a global scale indicates that the inclusion varieties of emerald from different origins are mostly similar, with spectral convergence and significant overlap in component content ranges, novel approaches for origin determination are proposed based on inclusion frequency, UV-VIS-NIR spectral patterns, absorption patterns of HDO and D₂O, and the parameter selection of compositional diagrams.