OBJECTIVES:  Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is a patient-reported outcome among pregnant women that is often neglected in clinical practice. We conducted a cross-sectional survey to examine the status of HRQOL among pregnant women and its correlates in Chengdu of China. METHODS:  We enrolled women during the third trimester of pregnancy at antenatal clinics of West China Second Hospital from October 30, 2013 to February 28, 2014. Participants completed the Chinese version of Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) to assess the HRQOL. Social demographics, pregnancy history, and personal characteristics were also collected during the survey. RESULTS:  A total of 2244 pregnant women aged 30.0 (standard deviation: 4.0 years) were recruited. The overall score for SF-36 was 66.91 (standard deviation: 11.6), and scores for eight domains ranged from 51.30 (standard deviation: 24.7) for role physical to 78.2 (standard deviation: 12.6) for mental health. Univariate analyses showed age, education level, occupation, living condition, age of first pregnancy, and relationship with mother-in-law were associated with all or most domains of SF-36 (all P<0.05). Multiple linear regression demonstrated that education level, living condition, and relationship with mother-in-law remained statistically significant after controlling for age, occupation, annual household income per capita, age of first pregnancy, and other potential confounders. The SF-36 score for the general health domain increased with increasing level of satisfaction with living condition (β coefficient -3.67, P<0.001 for dissatisfactory and 2.96, P=0.003 for fully satisfactory versus the satisfactory). Pregnant women who had good relationship with mother-in-law reported higher score for the mental health domain than those who did not (β coefficient 1.76, P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS:  Our findings indicate that personal characteristics may affect HRQOL among pregnant women, and deserve particular attention to improve HRQOL in clinical practice.