Objectives. To determine the correlation between hypertriglyceridemic waist (HTGW) and metabolic syndrome (MS) in adults of Trujillo according to diagnostic criteria. Materials and methods. Observational, prospective and cross-sectional study with a sample of 500 adults in Trujillo, selected by probability sampling and stratified by sex and age. Information on anthropometric measurements, blood pressure and biochemical tests was collected; Criteria proposed by the ATP III and Joint Interim Statement (JIS) for MS, as well as Gomez and JIS for HTGW were applied. EPIDAT software was used to calculate Z test, Student t test and the Kappa (k) with a confidence interval (CI) of 95%. Results. Information regarding 239 men and 261 women were collected. The frequency of HTGW according to Gomez criteria was 30% in the total sample, 29.7% in men and 30.3% women. According to JIS criteria the frequency was 34% in the total sample, 38.1% in men and 30.3% women. Metabolic Syndrome with JIS criteria had good agreement with HTGW according to Gomez criteria with k = 0.63 and according to JIS criteria with k = 0.66. Conclusions. Good agreement was evidenced between the HTGW according to Gomez and JIS criteria and MS according to JIS.