Thousands of boreholes have been drilled along the Qinghai-Tibetan Highway (QTH) to investigate the permafrost distribution during the past 50 years. Permafrost profiles from 697 boreholes, of which 9261 soil water content measurements were conducted, were selected to analyze the characteristics of ground ice distribution. Based on the horizontal distribution of ground ice and water content revealed from borehole profiles, the permafrost along the QTH can be divided into five types, i.e., low-ice content permafrost, high-ice content permafrost, ice-rich permafrost, ice saturated permafrost and ice-layer with soil. The length of each type of permafrost along the QTH was calculated. The vertical distribution of ground ice was also calculated for three vertical sections, i.e., within 1 m below the permafrost table, from 1 to 10 m below the permafrost table, and beneath 10 m below the permafrost table. The average thickness of permafrost along the QTH is about 38.79 m, and the average weighted water content is about 17.19%. Therefore, the total volume of ground ice in the permafrost regions on the Tibetan Plateau is estimated to be 9528 km³.