Health literacy is an emerging concept in the health care environment. It is one of the main factors that is related to adoption of the healthy lifestyle behaviors. Low health literacy in older adults leads to poor overall health. The aim of the study: was to assess the relation between health literacy and health promoting behaviors among elderly at Tanta city. Study design: A descriptive correlational study design was used in this study. Study settings: This study was conducted at the outpatient clinics of health insurance hospital at Tanta city. Study subjects: A convenience sample of 400 elderly who attend the previous setting was included in the study. Study tool: A structured interview schedule was used to collect data in this study which consisted of four parts: Part I: Socio-demographic characteristics and medical history of the elderly. Part II: Assessment of health literacy for the elderly. Part III: The Health Promotion Lifestyle Profile II (HPLP-II). Part IV: Assessment of the elderly knowledge about the basic health information. Results: about two thirds of the studied elderly had poor level of health literacy while more than half of the studied elderly had moderate level of adherence to health promoting behaviors. In addition, there was significant positive correlation between total health literacy scores, total knowledge scores, and total health promotion behaviors scores (P<0.005).Conclusion: Poor health literacy level was associated with low adherence to the healthy lifestyle among the studied elderly. Therefore, the community health nurse should organize health education programs about health promoting lifestyles and health literacy for older adults to help in improving their overall health.