Background: chronic kidney disease (CKD) is common in Saudi although there are few data on the prevalence of this disorder. Therefore, we initiated a multicenter screening study to identify the prevalence and staging of CKD in 712 patients with known hypertension in four hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Method: we measured estimated glomerular filtration rate by the six-variable modification of diet in renal disease equation and proteinuria by the protein/creatinine ratio. All the subjects studied were Saudis. Results: of the 712 patients studied, the median age was 59 years (range 19-90 years) and 560 (78.7%) of the patients were female. The mean duration of hypertension was 4 years (range 0.1-50). The overall prevalence of CKD was 46.9% (95% CI: 43.2–50.7%); 19.1% had CKD stages 1-2 and 27.8% had CKD stages 3-5. There was no difference in age between patients with or without CKD (p = 0.12). The overall prevalence of proteinuria was 28.9% (95% CI: 25.6-32.4%); 14.7% of subjects had preexisting diabetes mellitus and their prevalence of CKD (55%; 95% CI: 42.4-62.2) did not differ from those without diabetes (46%; 95% CI: 41.9-50.0, p = 0.133). Conclusion: CKD is common in hypertensive patients in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with a prevalence of 46.9%. This provided justification for the inclusion of this group in CKD screening programs in Saudi.