Objective  To investigate the quality of life (QoL) and its influencing factors among adult residents in Shandong province and to provide evidences for improving QoL of the population.

  Methods  We conducted a household survey among 28 000 residents aged ≥ 18 years recruited at 98 urban and rural communities in 54 counties/districts in Shandong province with stratified multi-stage cluster random sampling from October to December 2015. A brief scale was used to evaluate the QoL of the participants.

  Results  For the 27 531 valid respondents, the total QoL score was 22.70 ± 2.93 and 70.78 ± 11.71 out of a full marks of 30 and 100; the QoL domain scores were 3.71 ± 0.76 for physical health, 3.83 ± 0.69 for psychological health, 3.34 ± 0.69 for economic circumstances, 3.55 ± 0.69 for working situation, 4.13 ± 0.58 for family relationships, and 4.13 ± 0.60 for relationships with non-family associates, respectively. The proportions of the respondents assessed as with low, medium, and high QoL were 22.49% (6 191), 34.66% (9 543), and 42.85% (11 797). Multivariate ordinal regression analysis demonstrated that the respondents being female, having school years of 7 and more, married, being retired or retired due to illness, being student, and participating in commercial medical insurance were likely to have a high QoL; while, those with following characteristics were likely to have a low QoL: aged ≥ 31 years, divorced/separated, widowed, unemployed, with religious belief, and living in rural regions.

  Conclusion  The quality of life is generally good and mainly correlated with gender, residential region (rural or urban), age, school years, marital status, employment, religious belief, and type of medical insurance among adult residents in Shandong province.