Abstract Background Measuring family members’ satisfaction with inpatient psychiatric care may help improve the quality of healthcare in psychiatric hospitals. This survey aimed to investigate the satisfaction of family members with inpatient psychiatric care and to explore its associated factors, using a newly-developed 5-item questionnaire. Methods This study included 1598 family members of psychiatric inpatients in 32 tertiary public psychiatric hospitals in 29 provinces of China. Satisfaction and demographic data were collected by research staff while patient and hospital data were retrieved separately. Results We found that the overall satisfaction level was 93.84% (23.46/25). The total satisfaction score in Northeast China was the highest, followed by the East, Middle and West regions (p