Abstract: Objective To examine health literacy among childbearing women in some pilot areas and to provide a basis for making health policy and improving health literacy in childbearing women.Methods Using stratified random sampling,a questionnaire survey on health literacy was carried out among 6 348 childbearing women aged 16-49 years in 25 pilot areas from August to October 2015.Results Of the childbearing women,15.60% showed adequate overall health literacy and the proportions of the women with adequate health concept and knowledge,healthy lifestyle and behavior,and healthy related skills were 47.54%,8.66%,and 12.85%,respectively.The urban childbearing women had significantly higher overall adequate health literary than the rural women (16.64% vs.13.77%;χ²=9.17,P=0.002 5).The health literacy rate was different among the childbearing women reporting different average monthly income,with the highest rate of 23.42% among the women having the monthly income of 5 000-9 999 RMB yuan (χ²=187.99,P<0.000 1).Significantly higher adequate health literary rate were reported by the women at their prime childbearing age (23-30 years) (17.35%),without childbearing history (19.42%),and with fertility desire (16.70%) than by the women at other ages (14.08%,χ²=12.81;P=0.000 3),with childbearing history (χ²=74.71,P<0.000 1) and without fertility desire (14.27%,χ²=7.08;P=0.008).Conclusion The rate of with adequate health literacy was at a low level among childbearing women in pilot areas of China and the rate was influenced mainly by living area,average monthly income,the number of children,and fertility desire of the childbearing women;the childbearing women showed lower healthy lifestyle and behavior but relatively higher health concept and knowledge,suggesting the women are lack of the ability to transform health knowledge into healthy behavior.