Background and aims: To explore the ability of waist circumference (WC), body mass index (BMI) and waist to hip ratio (WHR) to predict two or more non-adipose components of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) among individuals aged 18-85 in North China. Methods and results: This study is a cluster sample survey of 101,510 individuals, complete data are 75,788 subjects, 59,874 males and 15,914 females. Their ages were 51.9 ± 12.7 years (males) and 48.7 ± 11.5 years (females). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to examine discrimination and find optimal cut off values of WC, BMI and WHR to predict two or more non-adipose components of MetS. The area under the ROC curve (AURC) for WC (0.694) and BMI (0.692) in females showed no difference. In males BMI (0.657) had a better discrimination than WC (0.634). WHR was weaker in both sexes. The optimal cut off value of WC in males (86.5 cm) was higher than in females (82.1 cm); and that of BMI was about 24 kg/m2 in both genders. The optimal cut off values of WC, BMI, and WHR, increased with age in both sexes. Conclusions: BMI and WC are more useful than WHR for predicting two or more non-adipose components of MetS. Cut off values for WC in males, and those of BMI and WHR in both sexes are lower than that in present MetS criteria; WC in females is slightly higher. Cut off values of WC, BMI and WHR were increased with age in the Chinese. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.