Purpose: The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. We investigated potential associations between MetS and asymptomatic intracranial arterial stenosis (ICAS) in a general population. Methods: The community-based "Asymptomatic Polyvascular Abnormalities in Community Study'' examined asymptomatic polyvascular abnormalities in a Chinese population aged 40+ years without history of stroke and coronary heart disease. MetS was defined by the International Diabetes Federation criteria. Asymptomatic ICAS was diagnosed by transcranial color-coded Doppler sonography. Results: Out of 5393 study participants, asymptomatic ICAS was detected in 713 (13.2%) participants, and MetS in 1323 (24.5%) individuals. Prevalence of asymptomatic ICAS increased significantly from 7.5% to 24.2% with increasing number of MetS components. After adjusting for age, gender, physical activity, body mass index, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, MetS was significantly associated with asymptomatic ICAS (OR: 1.50; 95% CI: 1.23,1.83). Compared with the subgroup without MetS, the ORs for asymptomatic ICAS increased (P<0.0001) for each of 5 components of MetS from 1.71 (95% CI: 1.27,2.30), to 2.20 (95% CI: 1.63,2.98), 2.79 (95CI: 2.01,3.88), 3.08 (95% CI: 2.11,4.51) and 4.27 (95% CI: 2.22,8.20). Conclusions: In multivariate analysis, MetS was an independent and additional factor associated with asymptomatic ICAS. Study participants with 5 MetS components had a 4 times higher risk of asymptomatic ICAS than participants with no MetS component.