Analysis of essential and non-essential trace elements in urine has emerged a valuable tool for assessing occupational or environmental exposure and diagnosing nutritional status. Our study focused on trace elements in urine samples from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) cohort are precious resource for health research with limited sample volumes. Here we provide a comprehensive and sensitive method for the analysis of 18 elements using only 100 µL of urine. Method sensitivity, accuracy, and precision were assessed. The analysis by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) included the measurement of antimony (Sb), arsenic (As), barium (Ba), cadmium (Cd), cesium (Cs), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), gadolinium (Gd), lead (Pb), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), nickel (Ni), selenium (Se), strontium (Sr), thallium (Tl), tungsten (W), uranium (U), and zinc (Zn). The results show a good accuracy and sensitivity of the ICP-MS method. The method detection limits ranged between 0.001 µg/L for U to 6.2 µg/L for Zn. Intra-day precision for MESA urine analysis varied between 1.4% for Mo and 26% for Mn (average 6.4% for all elements). The average inter-day precision for all elements is 8.5% with Gd (20%), U (16%) and Mn (19%) slightly above the acceptance precision range of 15% due very low urinary concentrations. Urinary concentrations of non-essential elements follow the order of Sr > As> Cs > Ni> Ba >Pb >Cd >Gd >Tl >W > U. The order of urinary mean concentrations for essential trace elements is Zn> Se> Mo> Cu> Co> Mn. Associations were identified between urinary trace element concentrations and covariates like gender, ethnicity/race, smoking and location.