To produce a latex composition for coating paper, capable of drastically solving the problems of stickiness and staining of a roll by admixing a latex obtained by carrying out an emulsion polymerization of monomers comprising an ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid monomer and a conjugated dienic monomer, with a zinc compound.

This latex composition for coating paper is obtained by adding 0.04-1.3 pts.wt. (expressed in terms of zinc) zinc compound as a water dispersion to 100 pts.wt. latex at 40-100°C, obtained by carrying out an emulsion polymerization of a monomer composition comprising an ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid monomer such as (meth)acrylic acid and a conjugated dienic monomer such as 1,3-butadiene, and having pH <7, and mixing the added product.