Background: Healthy lifestyle behavior among the nursing students may not only affect their lives, but also the quality of patient care and quality of patient education.

Purpose: To investigate the health promoting lifestyle behavior and associated factors of nursing students in the School of Nursing, Sri Lanka.

Method: A cross sectional survey with a quantitative design was used on 196 first year nursing students. Data was collected by a self-administered questionnaire, consisted of demographic data, Health habits and Health Promotion Life Style Profile II(HPLPII). Data was analyzed by using SPSS21.Kolmogorov-Simirnov and Shapiro-Wilk’s tests were used to determine whether variables were normally distributed, Mann Whitney and Kruskal Wallis tests were used to compare of independent samples with continuous dependent variables appropriately.

Results: The highest score in the subscales were for the interpersonal relationship and spiritual growth. Students who had regular sleep and who exercised regularly between 90-150 minutes per day had the highest HPLP II score. The lowest mean score value was shown for the subscale of physical activity. There was no association between BMI and different type of students ‘accommodations and the HPLP II. Regular sleep, everyday exercise and eating fruits were statistically significant with the total HPLP II.

Conclusion: Nursing students displayed unsatisfactory level of health promoting behaviors.