Objective To investigate the prevalence of depression in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD) and risk factors. Methods 215 patients with stable COPD were recruited in the study. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 ( PHQ-9) standardized scale were performed for the depression survey. Meanwhile CAT, pulmonary function test and the history taking ( sex, age, height, weigh, smoking status, education level) were applied to evaluate all the COPD patients. The COPD patients were classified into A, B, C, and D groups according to 2011 GOLD new COPD classification system. Pearson chi-square test and multivariate logistic modeling were used to estimate the prevalence of depression and the risk factors. Results The prevalence of depression in COPD patients whose PHQ-9 scores ≥7 was 37.7% with 18.5% , 35.8% , 46.5% , and 62.5% respectively in A, B, C, and D groups. There was significant difference in prevalence between each groups ( Plt;0.05) . Compared with the COPD patients without depression, the COPD patients with depression had younger age, more female, higher education level, higher CAT scores and smaller means of body mass index ( BMI) . Logistic analysis revealed that depression in COPD was associated with age, sex, education level, BMI, FEV1% pred and CAT scores. The patients who with younger age, female sex, higher education level, lower FEV1% pred, lower BMI and higher CAT scores were had higher rsik to be complicated with depression. However no significant difference was observed between different FEV1 /FVC or smoking status. Conclusions This study confirms the high prevalence of depression in patients with stable COPD, and the prevalence in A, B, C, and D groups of COPD are different. Sex, age, education level, FEV1% pred, BMI, and CAT scores are the risk factors of depression in COPD.