Objective — to investigate which biochemical or physiological factors are correlated with the vessel wall stiffness measured by pulse wave velocity (PWV); the main risk factors (RF) of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) due to atherosclerosis and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) were assessed as correlates of PWV. Material and methods. The study was conducted in two age groups: 84 younger patients (aged 30—44 years) and 90 older ones (aged 45—75 years) in people who had no obvious clinical manifestations of CVD or DM2, but had their risk factors. Results. The highly significant correlations of PWV with the following RFs of CVD and DM2: body mass index, serum levels of total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, non-high density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides (TG), apolipoprotein B (apoB), apoB/апоАI, glucose, and insulin, and insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR) were detected in the younger age group. In the older age group, the significant correlates of PWV were only the serum levels of TG and apoB/апоАI; apoB, insulin, and HOMA-IR had a tendency to certainty. Conclusion. The detection of correlations that are most pronounced in the younger age group suggests that the combination of increased arterial wall stiffness and the presence RF for CVD and DM2 is of high significance in exacerbating the development of these pathological processes. This also indicates that the efficiency of CVD and DM2 prevention measures may be increased through identification of the presence of PWV-correlating RFs and their modification, which is especially dangerous at a young age.