Aim: To report the prevalence of depression and its association with vision-related quality of life and social support in a type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) population. Methods: Patients were recruited from a community-based study, Fushun Diabetic Retinopathy Cohort Study (FS-DIRECT), conducted between July 2012 and May 2013 in China. Depression was assessed using the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Vision-related quality of life was evaluated using the Visual Function Questionnaire-25 (VFQ-25). Social support was captured with the Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS). Generalized linear models were used to estimate the individual and joint association of VFQ-25 composite score (VFQCS) and SSRS score (SSRSS) with depression. Results: A total of 1618 subjects (60.9% female) aged 61.69 +/- 8.72 years in an urban district of Jiangjun Street, Fushun City, Liaoning province, Northeast China from July 2012 to May 2013 were recruited, of which, 23.36% (95% CI: 21.30-25.42%) were identified with depression. Every 14.1 increase in VFQ-25 composite score decreased the risk of depression by half (OR = 0.5; 95% CI: 0.4-0.6); with the elevation of 10.0 SSRS score the risk of depression decreased by 40% (OR = 0.6; 95% CI: 0.5-0.7). Patients with the VFQCS less than 91.3 and SSRSS less than 38.0 had 5.9 times more risk of depression (OR = 5.9; 95% CI: 3.6-9.7). Age (over 60 years) (OR = 0.6; 95% CI: 0.4-0.9) and medical history of cardiovascular disease (OR = 1.7; 95% CI: 1.1-2.5) were independently correlated with depression symptom. Conclusion: The prevalence of depression is high among patients with T2DM in urban district in northeast China. Vision-related quality of life and social support scores are significantly associated with depression. Measures should be taken to screen depressive symptoms in patients with type 2 diabetes patients. These patients need to be intervened with appropriate and effective treatment as early as possible. Meanwhile, behavioral health specialists should guide the patient to get and use social support sources effectively.