Objective To survey the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)in urban areas of Hunan province and relevant risk factors and provide a basis of the prevention and treatment for COPD. Methods A questionnaire survey was conducted among 4248 residents, aged over 15, by a simple cluster random sampling method in Changsha, Hunan, Wulipai street North Station community. All the respondents filled out an unified epidemiological survey questionnaire. All of the respondents received examination for lung function. Those respondents showed FEV1/FVC ＜70% were further examined by ECG,X ray inspection for differential diagnosis. The data of epidemiological survey was analyzed by multivariate logistic regression method. Results The response rate was 92%. The total prevalence of COPD was 4. 81%.The prevalence of COPD in the males was 6. 6%, and 3. 0% in the females. The prevalence of COPD in the males was significantly higher than that in the females (x2 = 29. 915, P ＜ 0. 01). The prevalence increased with age increasing (P ＜0. 01). The more the education was, the lower the prevalence of COPD was. Risk factors analyzed with non-conditional logistic were as follow. The odd ratio (OR) for COPD in the age was 1.92(P ＜0. 01) and the odd ratio (OR) for COPD in the sex was 1.81 (P ＜0. 01). The weak lighting in house increased the risk with the OR of 4. 25(P ＜0. 01) and pet feeding further increased the risk with the OR of 12.08(P ＜0. 01). The odd ratio (OR) for COPD in the smokers was 1.74(P ＜0. 01) and the prevalence of COPD was related with smoking intensity (branch years of cigarette). Smoking intensity above 500 increased the risk of COPD. The passive smoking increased the risk with the OR of 16. 39(P ＜0. 01). The odd ratio (OR) for COPD in the paternal family history with chronic pulmonary disease was 2. 13(P ＜0. 01) and 2. 11 (P ＜ 0. 01) in the maternal family history. The odd ratio (OR)for COPD in the education degree was 0. 52(P ＜ 0. 01). Conclusions The prevalence of COPD was high in Changsha city, which might be attributed to the risk factors such as house lighting, pet feeding, cooking,aged, male, smoking, passive smoking, and family history. The education degree was the protective factor of COPD. We should intervene the relevant risk factors of COPD so that the prevalence of COPD might be cut down.