Objective  To examine the prevalence and influencing factors of smoking among 15 – 69 years old residents in Guangzhou city of Guangdong province for providing evidences to effective tobacco control.

  Methods  With stratified multistage random sampling, we conducted a face-to-face survey among 4 152 community residents aged 15 – 69 years in the city during August – November 2017. A self-designed questionnaire was used to collect information on smoking and associates of the residents.

  Results  Among the 4 142 valid respondents, the number of current, daily and non-daily smokers were 855, 732 and 123, with the corresponding rate of 20.6%, 17.7% and 3.0% for current, daily and non-daily smoking, respectively. The results of unconditional multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that with the education of junior high school was a significant risk factor for smoking; while, being female, with an education of college and above, being a student, having adequate health literacy, having the knowledge about tobacco control, with a high score for attitude towards no-smoking in indoor public places were protective factors against smoking among the respondents.

  Conclusion  The current smoking rate is relatively low and correlates with gender, education, occupation, health literacy, tobacco control knowledge, and the score of positive attitude towards no-smoking in indoor public places among 15 – 69 years old community residents in Guangzhou city.