Recent research suggested that certain small leucine-rich repeat proteoglycans (SLRPs) were involved in the development of atherosclerosis. The present study investigated the relationship between carotid atherosclerosis plaque and the circulating levels of some SLRPs, including decorin, lumican, and osteoglycin, in essential hypertension. In total, 176 essential hypertensive patients were recruited (mean age 62.1 ± 9.4, male 56.8%) in this study and were classified into two groups: patients with carotid artery plaque (n = 105, 60%) and patients without carotid artery plaque (n = 71, 40%). Patients with carotid artery plaque had higher serum concentration of lumican than patients without carotid plaque (58.0 ± 1.6 vs. 52.3 ± 2.1 ng/ml, p = 0.04) after adjusting for conventional cardiovascular risk factors. There were no differences in decorin and osteoglycin between the two groups. Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that lumican levels (Odds ratio (OR) per standard deviation increase, 1.598; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.012 ~ 2.523; p = 0.04), 24-h mean systolic blood pressure (OR, 1.045; 95% CI, 1.012 ~ 1.079; p = 0.006) and the use of angiotensin receptor blocker (OR, 2.813; 95% CI, 1.023 ~ 7.734; p = 0.045) were independently associated with carotid artery plaque. Besides carotid artery plaque, lumican was related to impaired glucose tolerance (r = 0.162, p = 0.046) and adversely related to osteoglycin (r = - 0.273, p < 0.001), whereas unrelated to age, sex, BMI, diabetes, blood pressure, serum lipids, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, or carotid intima-media thickness in univariate correlation analyses. Circulating lumican was independently associated with carotid atherosclerosis plaque in essential hypertensive patients, indicating that SLRPs might be used as a promising molecular marker for atherosclerosis.