Copper-zinc oxide catalysts are prepared by the co-precipitation technique. The effects of ageing the precipitate in the mother solution and that of the addition of manganese are explored. It has been found that the CuO-ZnO catalyst with Cu/Zn =2 is active for the water-gas shift reaction; however, the activity can be improved considerably by ageing the catalyst during the precipitation process. Alternatively, the catalyst performance can be promoted further by the addition of manganese during co-precipitation without ageing the precipitate. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results show that ageing the catalyst during the precipitation process results in smaller particle size of both CuO and ZnO and in higher inter-dispersion of ZnO, and in CuO. It is further seen that the addition of manganese to the catalyst also brings about a similar advantage. It is also found that the addition of manganese gives rise to a significant improvement in the catalyst stability with time on stream.