OBJECTIVES: Venous thromboembolism(VTE), a condition that includes deep vein thrombosis(DVT) and pulmonary embolism(PE) is associated with major morbidity and mortality and causes huge economic burden. The objective of this analysis was to determine the hospitalization costs and their predictors due to DVT/PE in China. METHODS: A total of 278 patients with DVT or PE were randomly selected by stratified two-stage sampling from the China Basic Medical Insurance Databases in 2009 and 2010. All information of patient demographic characters, length of stay, clinical and costs were collected for the analysis. The descriptive statistics was used to describe patients’ demographic characters, the hospital stay and the hospital costs. Univariate and multivariable analyses were also used in the data analysis. RESULTS: Total 278 patients (mean age 64.4 years; 58.3% male) were evaluated, 61.9% of patients with DVT and 38.1% of patients with PE. The mean length-of-stay was 15.8 days (15.0 days for DVT patients and 17.0 days for PE patients). The mean total cost was Chinese Yuan (CNY) 16487.91 (median:9039.10, IQR:5128.80-18981.83), CNY 17698.61 (median:8643.68, IQR:5025.03-19594.93) in patients with DVT and CNY 14523.39 (median:9879.25, IQR:5870.43 -18630.41) in patients with PE. The average drug cost accounts for 47.4% of the total cost (mean: 6340.29; median:4479.94, IQR:2279.88-7991.12).The multiple linear regressions showed that patients from tertiary hospitals had 105% higher costs than those from primary hospitals (P <0.001), and patients from municipalities had 48.6% higher costs than those from prefecture-level cities ( P <0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The costs per hospitalization associated with DVT or PE events are substantial. Hospitalization costs are now driven predominantly by the cost of drugs, levels of hospitals and cities.