Objectives: The potential role of elevated hemoglobin concentration in the development of metabolic syndrome (MS) has not been adequately evaluated. We aim to determine the role of elevated hemoglobin concentrations as a risk factor in MS during health examination of Chinese individuals.Methods: 57,510 health check-up (45,451 by cross-sectional study and 12,059 in a longitudinal population) were conducted. Subjects were divided into quartiles for analyses, using multiple logistic analyses. Furthermore, the logistic analyses were used to explore the association between hemoglobin concentration and individual MS components respectively in the cross-sectional study and the longitudinal study.Results: In this cross-sectional study, 10.4% of 45,451 of the health checkup subjects developed MS. Multiple logistic analysis revealed that higher hemoglobin quartiles were positively associated with the development of MS which was in contrast to the lowest hemoglobin quartiles in the fully adjusted model (OR: 2.171, 95% CI 1.944 -2.424 in males, P < 0.001; 2.694, 95% CI 2.056 -3.531 in females, P < 0.001). In addition, during a five-year period, 10.8% of 12,059 health checkup subjects in a longitudinal study were identified. When adjustments were made for compounding factors, the HR for this association between MS and hemoglobin persisted (HR: 2.157, 95% CI 1.635 -2.847, P < 0.001).Conclusions: Serum hemoglobin levels were associated with the prevalence of MS in Chinese individuals, suggesting that serum hemoglobin levels might be a novel predictor for the incidence of MS.