Abstract: Objective To study the quality of life of the people aged 80 and over in urban and rural areas in Nantong.Methods Adopting SF-36(the Short-Form 36 Item Health Survey Questionnaire),information of quality of life and relative factors were collected by face-to-face interview and analyzed by descriptive statistics and t-test.Results There were significance differences in physical function,body pain,general health,vitality,social function,mental health(P<0.05)between urban(64.00,69.70,50.95,68.36,71.25,73.27)and rural areas(36.05,60.47,42.75,51.51,61.92,57.76),but there were no significance differences in role-physical,role-emotional between urban(46.36,54.54)and rural(41.66,58.14)areas(P>0.05).Conclusion There were differences in the quality of life of the elder aged 80 and over between urban and rural areas in Nantong.