Objective. To analyze the quality of life of undergraduate students of a nursing course.Methods. This was a descriptive and cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach conducted in a public university in a municipality of Paraná State, Brazil; the study used the World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF) of the World Health Organization.Results. The study included 95 students, predominantly young (83.2%), single (89.4%), females (91.6%), living with friends (47.4%), receiving allowances (59%), with enough monthly income (77.9%), and dedication of seven to eight daily hours to academic activities (25.2%). Among the areas of quality of life, social relationships showed the highest score (77.20) followed by psychological (67.73), environmental (64.85), and physical (63.40). The relationship between sociodemographic variables and domains of quality of life was not significant according to the Student's t and ANOVA tests.Conclusion. This study highlights the importance of attention to the physical health of nursing students. How to cite this article: Mortz AR, Pereira EM, Borba KP, Clapis MJ, Gevert VG, Mantovani MF. Quality of life of undergraduate nursing students at a Brazilian public university. Invest. Educ. Enferm. 2016; 34(3): 564-572.