Abstract: Objective To explore the prevalence of depression in the elderly in Chengdu community and to analyze the influencing factors, and provide scientific basis for improvement of depressive symptoms and to formulate the corresponding measures. Methods By the method of layered, random and total sampling, we selected three representative communities in Chengdu, randomly selecting 400 elderly people from those communities which match the inclusion and exclusion criteria. All of them were investigated with self-designed General Condition Questionnaire and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), by analyzing the data to sum up the incidences of depressive symptoms in the elderly population and logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the influence factors. Results Among the 399 elderly people, there were 145 elderly showing depressive symptoms. The incidence of depressive symptoms was 36.3%, 110 (27.6%) with mild depressive symptoms and 35(8.8%) with moderate or severe depressive symptoms. The GDS scores ranged from 0 to 30, with an average of (9.61±6.92). Binary Logistic regression indicated that the occurrence of negative events was the risk factor of depressive symptoms in the elderly, and regular exercise, high satisfaction with their lives in their own social and families and optimism were the protection factors of depressive symptoms in the elderly. Conclusion The incidence of depressive symptoms among the elderly in the community of Chengdu was in high proportion and related with life style, self-evaluation, life events and other factors. Community institutions should strengthen the monitoring of psychological health problems of elderly people and effective measures of intervention on the influencing factors should be taken to reduce the incidence of depression and improve the mental health and quality of life of the elderly.