Abstract: Objective To evaluate the prevalence of depressive symptoms and to explore its influencing factors among rural left-behind residents in Shenyang municipality.Methods With multistage stratified sampling method,the depressive symptoms of 514 rural left-behind residents in Shenyang municipality were assessed with the Chinese Version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale(CES-D).Results The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 21.8% for the residents,including 31(6.0%)with minor depression,81(15.8%)with moderate and severe depression.Multivariate logistic analyses showed that having chronic disease and debt burden were risk factors for the prevalence of depressive symptoms,whereas higher education and better sleeping were protective factors.Conclusion The prevalence of depressive symptoms is high among rural left-behind residents.The major influencing factors of depressive symptoms are having chronic disease,debt burden,education,and sleeping in the residents.