Objective  To investigate the associations of smoking conditions with various socioeconomic status in China.

  Methods  Cross-sectional analysis of data about smoking behavior and socioeconomic status (education, occupation and neighbor hood income) are performed using data from the Second National Health Service Study (1998) of China Ministry of Health.

  Results  There is an inverse association in univariate analysis between smoking and educational level in each gender subgroup(P < 0.000 1);Among various occupation, the lowest smoking prevalence is hold by professional technician(51.50 % in male; 2.23% in female); the highest in male is of manufacturing, production, and transportation(63.94 %), and in female is of forestry, stockbreeding and fishery (5.68 %) respectively.From the lowest income level to the highest, smoking prevalence of urban males decreases gradually, but for males in rural areas that is almost of no differnece among various income level.

  Conclusion  People of low socioeconomic status consume a disproportionately large amount of tobacco in China.Policies and measures that prevent and control smoking and promote smoking cessation in low socioeconomic groups are therefore needed.