〔Abstract〕 Objective To identify the associated factors of peripheral blood lymphocyte counts(PBLC) in gastric cancer patients. Methods In this cross-sectional study, data were collected from patients underwent gastric cancer surgery. Univariate analysis, multiple linear regression and variable importance metrics were used to assess factors associating PBLC in pre-operative patients. The findings were further investigated by fitting locally weighted regression(loess) and robust linear model(rlm). Results Patients with pre-operative PBLC<1.1×109/L(group A) were 138(20.72%), whereas patients with PBLC ≥ 1.1×109/L(group B) were 528(79.28%). Compared to group B, patients in group A were older[(64.61±10.42 years) vs(62.18±10.41 years), P<0.05] and showed lower neutrophils [(3.21±1.41) ×109/L vs(3.59±1.31) ×109/L, P<0.01]. Lymphopenia was associated with later stage of gastric cancer, P<0.01. A multiple linear regression model with randomly distributed residuals found that age(β=-0.01, t=-3.70, P<0.01) and tumor stage [β(Ⅱ vs Ⅰ)=-0.16, t=-2.79, P<0.01; β(Ⅲ vs Ⅰ)=-0.18, t=-3.86, P<0.01; β(Ⅳ vs Ⅰ)=-0.21, t=-2.16, P<0.05] were to be statistically significant factors for lymphopenia. Neutrophil increase(β=0.05, t=3.61, P<0.01) was associated with a higher PBLC. The relative importance analysis for continuous independent variables showed that relative importance metric LMGs in variable age, neutrophil and CEA were 55.55%, 44.14% and 0.31% respectively. Loess and rlm models showed that age was the negatively influencing factor of PBLC. Conclusion PBLC in gastric cancer patients were positively associated with neutrophils, and negatively associated with age and tumor stages.