Background and Objective: The risk of malnutrition is increased by aging. This is due to the insufficient food intake, weakening illnesses, social loneliness, economical limitations and etc. which not only increase the susceptibility to the development of disease, but also causes decreasing the quality of life. The purpose of the following study was to determine the prevalence of malnutrition and its relation to socio-demographic factors in elderly membered in “Jahandidegan Council” of Shiraz, in 2009.

Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 180 elderly of “Jahandidegan Council”, by simple random sampling, were selected and the data was collected by two questionnaires; the socio-demographic and the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) as the elderly nutritional screening tool. By using SPSS version 16 and utilizing ANOVA, t-test and Mann-Whitney test, collected data was analyzed.

Results: The results of the study showed that 1.1% and 12.8% of elderly were malnourished and at the risk of malnutrition, respectively. There was significant relation between education with the development of the disease (p<0.003). Age, sex, marriage status and previous occupation were not significantly correlated to malnutrition.

Conclusion: Regarding the importance of malnutrition in aging, continuing the current process of giving comprehensive nutrition education to this vulnerable group in order to enhance the nutritional information and improving the quality of the life is proposed. On the other hand, in any public health programme to promote optimal health, improving nutrition status must be included.