Atrial fibrillation (AF) increases the risk of ischemic stroke, heart failure, all-cause mortality and cognitive dysfunction. Identifying risk factors for incident AF is pivotal for making strategies for primary prevention, silent AF screening or detection, and improving AF-related clinical prognosis. The most common clinical risk factors for AF include age, male gender, smoking, drinking, obesity, obstructive sleep apnea, hypertension, coronary artery disease, heart failure, hyperthyroidism, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic kidney disease, etc. The novel HAVOC and C₂HEST score are the promising and simple clinical risk assessment tools for incident AF.