Background <p>Albuminuria is an early indicator of kidney damage, and obesity is one of its main risk factors. Increased adiposity has been shown to be associated with albuminuria. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyse the association between adiposity indices (BMI, WC, WHtR and WHR) and the incidence of albuminuria in Brazilian adults.</p> Methods <p>A total of 12,399 participants from the ELSA-Brasil cohort baseline (2008–2010) who were free of albuminuria and attended visit 2 of the study (2012–2014) were included in this study. The outcome was albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio ≥ 30&#xa0;mg/g), and the adiposity indices were the exposure of interest. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the magnitude of the associations, adjusting for covariates.</p> Results <p>The mean age was 51.70 (± 8.87) years, and the majority were female (54.53%). The incidence of albuminuria was 2.82% during a mean follow-up period of 3.84 (± 0.57) years. The mean BMI, WC, WHtR and WHR adiposity indices were: 26.85 (± 4.61) kg/m², 90.74 (± 12.51) cm, 55.02 (± 7.39) % and 89.25 (± 8.60) %, respectively. A one unit increase in adiposity indices was associated with an increase of one to three percent of odds the albuminuria, these associations remained significant even after adjusting for covariates.</p> Conclusions <p>Increased central and global adiposity indices are associated with incident albuminuria. It is vital to implement health interventions to prevent increased adiposity, given that it is a predictor of albuminuria.</p> Clinical trial number <p>Not applicable.</p>