This article deals with the global dimension of rings of functions. An improved lower bound for global dimension is proved for von Neumann regular rings. IfXis a compact, Hausdorff and zero-dimensional space, and its weight and independence character coincide, then the global dimension of 𝔅(X), its Stone dual, can be calculated. The spaces for which these invariants agree are studied. Finally, it is shown that, except forP-spaces, the global dimension ofC(X) is at least 3.