Background: Prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases is routinely carried out in developed countries. The aim was to study the prevalence of risk factors associated with cardiovascular diseases in urban and rural areas of Dharwada population.Methods: A total of 652 subjects (male-328; female-324) with an age group 15-64 years from rural and urban areas of Dharwad population were selected for the present study. Pregnant women, severe chronic illness, bedridden patients and subjects who refused to participate in the study were excluded from the study. Age-sex, religion educational status, and occupation, type of family, socioeconomic status followed by a questionnaire on the use of tobacco, alcohol were collected and tabulated.Results: Subjects with tobacco smoking habit were 30 (9.2%) in the urban area which was more in comparison to 11 (3.4%) in the rural area. In the urban area, tobacco usage was more among males (62.9%) and unemployed (55.9%) and it was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). In the rural area, tobacco usage was more among 40-64 years age group (39.4%), males (61.6%), literates (39.4%), employed (48.8%) and lower socioeconomic group (39.2%) and it was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). The alcohol consumption habit among the study subjects was more in the age group of 40-64 years in both urban (18.3%) and rural (9.6%) area and they were found to be statistically significant.Conclusions: Consumption of tobacco, alcohol is the major risk factor in the management of cardiovascular diseases in the urban and rural population.