Aim To study the relationship between arterial stiffness and red blood cell parameters. Methods304 patients were chosen in the Medical Center of the Southern District of Guang'anmen Hospital of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in July 2014. The medical history, measured height, weight, blood pressure, blood routine, biochemical indicators were asked, and Omron BP-203 RPE Ⅲ arterial stiffness detector was applied to test their arterial elasticity. According to brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), they were divided into normal group (n＝117 ), mild sclerosis group (n＝112) and atherosclerosis group (n＝75), and red blood cell parameters were compared among the three groups. Results The mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and red blood cell distribution width-correlation variance(RDW-CV) in the atherosclerosis group were significantly higher than that in the normal group (P<0.05 or P<0.01). The red blood cell distribution width-standard deviation (RDW-SD) in the atherosclerosis group was higher than that in the mild sclerosis group (P<0.05). The RDW-SD in the mild sclerosis group was higher than that in the normal group (P<0.05). Correlation analysis showed hemoglobin (HGB), hematocrit (HCT), MCV, mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), RDW-CV, RDW-SD and baPWV were positively correlated. Multiple linear regression analysis showed the final regression equation included indicators was RDW-SD, HGB, the regression equation was baPWV＝-898.411＋39.657×RDW-SD＋3.171×HGB. Conclusion RDW-SD have a certain degree of clinical reference for the evaluation of atherosclerosis, while HGB is the impact factor of atherosclerosis.