Objective  To explore the participation in emergency education and its influencing factors among urban and rural residents in China and to provide evidences for promoting emergency response training, improving emergency literacy and emergency response system.

  Methods  Using cluster sampling, we conducted a household questionnaire survey among 2 545 residents aged 15 years and above in urban communities or rural villages in three provinces locating in southern, central and northeastern China from April to September 2015. Descriptive statistics, chi-square test and logistic regression model were adopted in data analysis.

  Results  Of the 2 484 valid respondents, 46.7% and 33.9% considered that to participate in emergency education is extremely or indeed necessary; while only 25.2% and 16.5% reported the participation in emergency trainings and drills on responses to earthquake, fire, infectious disease epidemic, traffic accident or theft during past one year. The results of logistic regression analysis revealed following promoting factors for the participation in emergency education: at younger age compared to at ages of 61 years and above (15 – 30 years: odds ratio OR = 2.876, 31 – 60 years: OR = 2.453), with higher education compared to the education of junior high school and lower (senior high school/secondary technical school: OR = 1.561, college and above: OR = 2.112), personal responsibility awareness (high vs. low: OR = 1.496), behavior evaluation capability (high vs. low: OR = 1.286), social capital (high vs. low: OR = 1.340), frequency of acquiring knowledge about emergency response through internet (high vs. low: OR = 1.397), and having the experience of emergency response (OR = 1.515). Insufficient attention from the society, poor risk awareness in the public and low frequency of emergency education are main problems in implementation of emergency education listed by 57.9%, 41.5% and 38.4% of the respondents.

  Conclusion  The willingness to participate in emergency education is high, but the participation rate is low among urban and rural residents in China. the results suggest that emergency education needs to be improved and promoted in the public.