Abstract: Objective To explore the relationship between waist circumference and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity（baPWV）in middle-aged and elderly populations. Methods From June 2010 to October 2011,a total of 5852 workers aged 40 and over were enrolled from Tangshan Kailuan Group by a stratified random sampling method,and they were free of cerebral apoplexy,transient ischemic attack,and myocardial infarction. Data from unified questionnaires,blood biochemistry indexes and baPWV were recorded or measured.All study workers were categorized in quartiles according to waist circumstance（＜80cm,80to＜86cm,86to＜93cm,and≥93cm）. The rate of high baPWV（baPWV≥1400cm/s）was compared across four groups. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between waist circumstance and baPWV. Results 1)A total of 5221 workers with an average age of 55.1（standard deviation:11.8;range:40-94）years were eligible in this study,including 3131 males and 2090 females. 2)A total of 3237 workers had baPWV of at least 1400cm/s with an proportion of62.0%,and this rate was 46.9%,58.2%,66.6% and 75.2% in the first,second,third and fourth quartile of waist circumstance,respectively（Pfor trend ＜0.01）. 3)Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that compared with those with waist circumstance of less than 80 cm,the odds ratio of having high baPWV was 1.38 in workers with waist circumstance≥93cm after adjusting for age,gender,body mass index,fast plasma glucose,total cholesterol,triglyceride,low-and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol,systolic and diastolic blood pressure,smoking,drinking,high-sensitivity C-reaction protein and homocysteine. Conclusion The risk of having high baPWV was gradually increased with the increase of waist circumstance,and waist circumstance of at least 93 cm is an independent risk factor for high baPWV in middle-aged and elderly populations.