Abstract: Objective To explore the carry rate and antimicrobial resistance of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) among primary school students. Methods Nasal swab samples were collected from healthy primary school students in Guangzhou. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was applied to test S. aureus strains. Results The overall carriage rate of S. aureus, methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and multi-drug-resistant S. aureus (MDRSA) among 1 012 primary school students were 40.1%, 1.2% and 4.0%, respectively. Most S. aureus isolates were resistant to penicillin, erythromycin and clindamycin. The dominant multidrug resistance patterns of MDRSA isolates were resistant to erythromycin-clindamycin-tetracycline and erythromycin-clindamycin-cefoxitin. Multifactor dimensionality reduction analysis showed that the rate of resistance to cefoxitin, tetracycline and chloromycetin among MDRSA was 104.39 times as much as that of non-MDRSA. Conclusions The carriage rate of S. aureus in healthy primary school students from Guangzhou was high and these isolates showed multidrug resistance. These data provide basis for guiding the rational use of antibiotics.