Embodiments of the present invention provide a resource mapping method. The method includes: obtaining a modulation symbol generated based on M code words, where M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1; mapping the modulation symbol generated based on the M code words to a time-frequency resource in one or more mapping patterns, where the mapping pattern is a pattern of mapping every Q modulation symbols to one mapping unit, the mapping unit includes F resource units, F is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1, Q is a positive integer meeting 1≤Q≤F, the mapping pattern includes a sparse mapping pattern, and the sparse mapping pattern is a mapping pattern meeting F≥2 and 1≤Q