Objective To study central obesity among middle-aged and elderly residents of Xinjiang Uygur and Han ethnicities, living in rural and urban areas. Methods Multi-stage stratified random cluster sampling approaches were adopted to collect data from 6 areas in Soutbem, Eastern, Northern Xinjiang and Urumqi city community, from July of 2005 to June of 2007. Results 8284 people were investigated to have found that the crude prevalence rate and the adjusted standardized incidence were 50.11% and 55.40% respectively, on central obesity. The figures were higher than the national level, according to the 2000 census age composition of Xinjiang. The prevalence rate of central obesity was higher in males than in females (P<0.05) higher in residents of Uygur than in Han ethnicities(P<0.05). The prevalent rates of the central obesity hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia were higher than those of non-obese ones (P<0.05). Conclusion The standardized prevalence rates of central obesity in residents with Xinjiang Uygur and Hart ethnicities were higher than data from the national statistics. Differences were found in ethnicity, gender and age. The prevalence rates of hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia in people having central obesity were higher than the non-obese ones.