The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between life style and metabolic syndrome. The cross-sectional survey was conducted in Pingliang community in Shanghai in Jan 2003. The data was collected by questionnaire, and the results were analyzed by SPSS. It was found that the prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome (MS) was $13.4\%$ in the community, and the body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), serum triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol(TC), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), and fast plasma glucose (FPG) in MS group were higher than that in non-MS group. Logistic regression analysis indicated that BMI and WHR were positively correlated to the prevalence of MS, and physical activity was negatively correlated to the prevalence of MS. People with higher education levels (${geq}10y$) had lower BMI, SBP, DBP, LDL-C and FPG. The prevalence of MS in the higher education level group was significantly lower than that of the lower education level group. These results suggested that BMI, WHR and physical activity were important factors of MS, and education background played an important role in the occurrence of MS. Therefore, it is very important to build a healthy life style for preventing and controlling the incidence and developing of MS.