Background: Low socio-economic status is associated with an increased risk of metabolic syndrome. The Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas(SEIFA) released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics has three indices to assess socio-economic status based on postcode(index of advantage/disadvantage(IAD), index of education/occupation(IEO) and index of economic resources(IER)) whereby a higher score indicates more advantaged areas. We investigated if low socio-economic status was associated with incident AF, independent of risk factors and cardiac function.Methods: 204 participants from the community were followed up for incident AF(median 12±3 months). All were ≥65 years with 1 or more risk factor(e.g. hypertension, diabetes mellitus) for AF. All patients had echocardiography and assessment of 5 year AF risk using the CHARGE-AF score. AF was diagnosed by local doctors during the follow up period, by 12 lead ECG during clinics or using a single lead portable ECG monitoring device(Remon RM-100, Semacare, China) which was used to record 60 sec ECG tracings 5 times/day for one week. The 2011 SEIFA data was used to classify the IAD, IEO and IER of participants. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the association between reduced socio-economic status and AF.Results: 44(22%) pts(mean age 70.1±4.2yrs,male 51%) had new AF. Those with AF were more likely to be male(68%vs.46%,p=0.01) and had higher CHARGE-AF score (median 7.1±8.0% vs. 6.4±6.0%,p=0.04). Patients with AF had reduced global longitudinal strain(-17.5% vs. -18.8%,p=0.02) and increased left atrial volume(34.2vs.30.7 ml/m2,p=0.02). Areas with higher socio-economic status and education(IAD and IEO) had reduced risk of AF compared to areas with lower socio-economic status independent of LV function and CHARGE-AF score(Table). IER was not independently associated with AF(p>0.05).Conclusion: Reduced socio-economic status is associated with risk of AF independent of LV function and clinical risk.