Purpose: Elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) is a well known surrogate marker of coronary heart disease. However, gender difference and influencing risk factors of high CRP in general population is not well studied. We examined gender difference and contributing risk factors to elevated CRP in Korean rural general population. Method: We performed a cohort study (ARIRANG cohort) conducted on a Korean adult (age > 40 years) population with 10,111 subjects (6,021 women and 4,090 men) without history of cardiovascular disease or cancer. All subjects were measured hs-CRP by turbidimetric immunoassay (TIA) methods. We compared the median value of CRP and influencing risk factors to high CRP between male and female group. Results: Mean age was 56.4 짹 8.1. The median CRP level of all subjects was 0.82 mg/L (interquartile range; 0.42-1.78). The median CRP value of men was significantly higher than that of women [median (interquartile range); 0.99 (0.51-2.12) vs. 0.72 (0.37-1.56) mg/L; p<0.01]. CRP concentration was significantly correlated gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, fasting glucose, post-prandial glucose, alanine transaminase, Homa-IR in men and women. Otherwise, systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein, low density lipoprotein, body mass index were significantly correlated with CRP in only women. In linear regression model, the predictors of elevated CRP were age (棺=0.055, p=0.037), fasting glucose (棺=0.05, P<0.001), HDL cholesterol (棺=-0.031, P=0.002), ALT (棺=0.039, P=0.024), and gamma-GT (棺=0.074, P<0.001). Conclusion: CRP was higher in men than women with different risk factors. The independent risk predictors of elevated CRP were age, fasting glucose, HDL cholesterol, ALT, and gamma-GT.