To investigate the effect of long-term exposure of nitrogen dioxide on the incidence of hypertension. From March to December 2009, 37 386 eligible residents from four cities in northern China (Tianjin, Shenyang, Taiyuan, and Rizhao) were enrolled in a follow-up study by using the random cluster sampling method. Demographic characteristics, lifestyle, history of diseases, and self-report situation of hypertension were collected by using questionnaire. Based on the average annual concentration of NO during the period from the cohort to the onset of hypertension as an estimate of exposure, the effect of NO exposure on hypertension was analyzed by employing Cox proportional hazards model. The interactions between NO exposure and different characteristics (age, sex, body mass index, smoking, alcohol consumption, education, economy, exercise, and fruit intake) were also examined. The baseline age of residents was (43.74±13.78) years, and the body mass index (BMI) was (22.56±2.92) kg/m(2). During an average follow-up time of 11.40 years, 2 619 (7.0%) new cases of hypertension were reported. The overall mean environmental pollution levels during the study period for the entire cohort was (40.74±17.07) μg/m(3). After adjusting for age, sex, BMI, family history of hypertension, socio-economic information, and lifestyle, the hazard ratio () of incident hypertension with a 10 μg/m(3) increase of NO was 1.21 (95: 1.18-1.25). Compared with residents aged 60 years and over (=1.19, 95: 1.14-1.26), former and current smoking (=1.20, 95: 1.14-1.25), and high-frequency fruit consumption (=1.17, 95: 1.13-1.21), residents younger than 60 years (=1.28, 95: 1.25-1.32), non-smoker (=1.23, 95: 1.19-1.27), and low-frequency fruit consumption (=1.27, 95: 1.20-1.35) had stronger interaction effect with NO (all values for interaction0.05). NO exposure may lead to the onset of hypertension, which has a stronger effect on people younger than 60 years old, without smoking history and with low-frequency fruit consumption.