The aim of this work was to study the influence of CuO loading and pretreatment procedure on morphological, redox and acidic properties of CuO-CeO2 catalysts, and correlate them to their water gas shift (WGS) activity. Catalysts with a 10, 15 and 20 mol % CuO loading were synthesized with a method of coprecipitadon, calcined at temperatures ranging from 400 to 750 degrees C, and subjected to XRD, N-2 adsorption/desorption, H-2-TPR/TPD, N2O decomposition, NH3 chemisorption and pulse WGS activity tests in the temperature range of 180-400 degrees C. Catalyst samples with a higher CuO content exhibited better WGS performance, due to greater oxygen mobility of the CeO2 phase. Increasing the calcination temperature on the other hand deactivated the catalysts due to sintering and decrease of the CuO-CeO2 interface area. A strong positive dependence of H-2 selectivity and consequently higher H-2 yield on increased catalyst surface acidity was observed, being more pronounced for catalysts with 10 mol% CuO content. WGS activity trends of the examined solids were successfully correlated with the extent of CeO2 reduction and surface acidity, while an influence of active surface area on the activity trends was found to be marginal.