Objective To identify the latent profiles of depressive symptoms in rural older adults and their relationships with cognitive function, and to provide reference for developing targeted interventions.Methods We used data of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study 2018 to explore the potential categories of depressive symptoms in rural older adults using latent profile analysis and assessed the relationship between different categories of depressive symptoms and cognitive function.Results A total of 1 953 adults aged 60 years and older were included. The incidence of depressive symptoms was 33.1% and of cognitive impairment was 28.4%.Depressive symptoms were classified into four categories: no depression （67.7%）, mild depression （9.7%）,severe depression with low fearful feeling （12.7%）, and severe depression with high fearful feeling （9.8%）.Compared with the no depression group, those in severe depression with high fearful feeling group had high risk of cognitive impairment （OR=2.290,P＜0.05）.Conclusion The incidence of depressive symptoms is relatively high among rural older population, and there is heterogeneity across subgroups.Attention should be paid to the depressive emotions of rural older adults, and timely psychological counseling should be provided, especially for those with severe depression and high fearful feeling, resulting in reducing the risk of cognitive impairment.