AIM:To evaluate the prevalence of age-related macular degeneration(AMD) in elderly population in urban area of Beijing.METHODS:Epidemiology survey.Citizens of more than 50 years old in the community of Xi Chang’an street of Beijing were recruited.The targeted subjects were picked up by door-to-door and a questionnaire about healthy state,medicine,life habits et al was answered.The comprehensive ophthalmic examinations,including visual acuity,pinhole visual acuity,non-contact intraocular pressure test,slit-lamp,ophthalmoscopy and non-mydriatic fundus photography were performed.Colorful fundus photography was taken by a trained ophthalmologist.AMD was graded on fundus photography following Clinic Age-Related Maculopathy System.RESULTS:A total of 2833 citizens of more than 50 years old had dwelled in the community and 2410 participated in the investigation,meaning a response rate of 85.07%.Early AMD was present in 70(2.98%) of 2348 subjects,late AMD in 7(0.30%) of 2348 subjects,and exudative AMD in 4(0.17%) of 2348 subjects.Monocular blindness caused by late AMD accounted for 6.49%(5/77 subjects) and binocular blindness 2.60%(2/77 subjects) of the study population.The prevalence of AMD increased with age.CONCLUSION:The prevalence of AMD in the community of Beijing is similar to reports of most studies both international and domestic,early AMD is majority of pathology,which is one of major tasks of blindness prevention in the community.