OBJECTIVES: 1) Examine survival of late stage prostate cancer patients; and 2) Determine factors associated with survival at both the patient and neighborhood levels. METHODS:   Prostate cancer cases were obtained from the Florida Cancer Data System. Men aged 40 years and above diagnosed with late prostate cancer in 1995 were followed through 2000.  Demographics, health insurance and vital statistics were extracted for individual patients and linked with Florida Census 2000 data with education and poverty level information. Data was analyzed using a multilevel logistic regression to examine the relationship of prostate cancer survival with both patient-level characteristics and area-based measures of socioeconomic status.RESULTS:  A total of 1,101 men were diagnosed in Florida with late stage prostate cancer in 1995 with an average age of 69 years. Patients with the following characteristics were more likely to die from prostate cancer than their counterparts: unmarried, Medicaid recipient, and older. Men residing in neighborhood with higher percentage of high school education and surprisingly men without health insurance were more likely to live longer than five years. CONCLUSIONS: Although survival has improved over time due to early detection of prostate cancer, there are still differences in survival among men diagnosed with late stage based on different marital status, health insurance and neighborhood characteristics.