Objective：To study the relationship between metabolic syndrome（MS） and early-stage diabetic nephropathy（DN） in type 2 diabetes mellitus（T2DM）. Methods：478 cases of T2DM were screened for early-stage DN, and some correlated risk factors were analyzed. Results：Patients with MS（64.2%） had a higher prevalence of early-stage DN（36.2% vs. 22.8%, P < 0.01）. The proportion of early-stage DN was associated with MS features（16.67%, 26.74%, 36.43%, 45.68%, respectively，P < 0.01）. Triglycerides（TG）, systolic blood pressure （SBP）， glycosylated hemoglobin（HbA1C） and lipoprotein LP（a） were all independent risk factors of early-stage DN（P < 0.05 or P < 0.01）. Conclusion：MS is significantly associated with early stage DN in patients with T2DM.