BACKGROUND: Pregnancy induced hypertension may indicate a tendency towards endothelial and metabolic abnormalities leading to future cardiovascular disease. Childhood socioeconomic adversity is associated with increased cardiovascular disease risk but the association with pregnancy induced hypertension is unknown. AIM: To examine the association of childhood and adulthood socioeconomic position with pregnancy induced hypertension. DESIGN: Historical cohort study with record linkage to obstetric data. SUBJECTS: 3485 women who were born in Aberdeen between 1950 and 1956 and delivered 7080 viable singleton offspring in the period up until to 1999. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Pregnancy induced hypertension (pre-eclampsia and gestational hypertension) in these women's pregnancies. RESULTS: Neither childhood nor adulthood socioeconomic position were associated with either pre-eclampsia or gestational hypertension. The fully adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) comparing those born in manual social classes to those born in non-manual social classes for pre-eclampsia was 1.10 (0.72 to 1.73) and for gestational hypertension was 1.02 (0.83 to 1.32). Similar results comparing women in manual with non-manual social classes classified at the time of each pregnancy were 1.09 (0.73 to 1.67) for pre-eclampsia and 0.99 (0.81 to 1.30) for gestational hypertension. CONCLUSION: Although imprecise these results suggest that neither childhood nor adulthood socioeconomic adversity is associated with pregnancy induced hypertension.