The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of combinations of blood pressure and glucose tolerance status on cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. A total of 7619 participants aged ⩾30 years old were stratified to nine categories as follows: (1) normotension (NTN) and normal glucose tolerance (NGT) (reference group), (2) NTN and pre-diabetes mellitus (pre-DM), (3) NTN and DM, (4) pre-hypertension (pre-HTN) and NGT, (5) pre-HTN and pre-DM, (6) pre-HTN and DM, (7) HTN and NGT, (8) HTN and pre-DM and (9) HTN and DM. Cox proportional hazards were applied to calculate the multivariate hazard ratios (HRs) of different groups for outcomes. For all-cause mortality outcomes, prevalent cardiovascular disease (CVD) was also adjusted. In a median follow-up of 11.3 years, 696 CVD and 412 all-cause mortality events occurred. Among the population free from CVD at baseline (n=7249), presence of HTN was associated with increased risk of CVD, regardless of glucose tolerance status with HRs of 1.97 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.49-2.61), 2.25 (1.68-3.02) and 3.16 (2.28-4.37) for phenotypes of HTN and NGT, HTN and pre-DM and HTN and DM for CVD, respectively; corresponding HRs for all-cause mortality were 1.65 (95% CI, 1.15-2.37), 1.69 (1.15-2.49) and 2.73 (1.80-4.14), respectively. Phenotypes of NTN and pre-DM (1.48; 1.03-2.14) and NTN and DM (2.04; 1.06-3.92) were also associated with CVD and all-cause mortality, respectively. HTN was significantly associated with CVD/mortality events, regardless of glucose tolerance status. Blood pressure <120/80 mm Hg among pre-diabetic/diabetic population, not on antihypertensive medications, was generally associated with worse outcomes.