Abstract: Objective To examine the prevalence rate of hypertension among residents living in townships with different urbanization level in Bai ethnic regions of Dali municipality,Yunnan province and to provide evidences for prevention and control of hypertension among the residents.Methods A total of 2 760 permanent residents aged 15 to 69 years were selected with stratified multistage cluster sampling from townships under different urbanization process in Bai ethnic regions of Dali municipality and investigated with a questionnaire survey and blood pressure measurement in 2014.Results The overall hypertension prevalence rate among the participants was 29.0% and the standardized prevalence rate was 22.5%.The participants in the townships with a higher urbanization level (Dali city) had higher crude and standardized prevalence rate of hypertension than those in the townships with a lower urbanization level (Eryuan county)(30.6% vs.27.4% and 23.9% vs.21.7%),respectively.There were significant age-difference among the participants from Dali city and age- and gender-differences among the participants from Eryuan county in the prevalence rate of hypertension (all P < 0.05).Whereas the participants from Dali city had significantly lower awareness rates for all hypertension-related knowledge items compared to those from Eryuan county,except for medication of hypertension patients depending on doctors' prescriptions and alcohol drinking being a risk factor of hypertension(all P < 0.01).Conclusion There are a higher prevalence rate of hypertension but a lower awareness rate of hypertension-related knowledge among the residents living in townships with higher urbanization level in Bai ethnic areas of Dali municipality of Yunnan province.