In a study on the HLA‐DR antigens and phenotypes in a series of Dutch coeliac children and their first‐degree relatives, the B‐cell antigens of 36 unrelated coeliac children, 110 first‐degree relatives of 33 of them, and 201 controls were typed with the two‐colour fluorescence test. The most frequent antigen was HLA‐DR3 (69%), followed by DR7 (36%). The distribution of DR phenotypes showed that the most frequent was DR3/other DR (25%), followed by DR3/DR7 (17%), DR3/DR4 (14%), and DR3/DR3 (14%). However, due to the frequency of certain antigens in the controls, only phenotypes DR3/DR3 (relative risk = 6.2), DR3/DR7 (relative risk = 6.4), and DR3/DR4 (relative risk = 6.2) were significantly associated with CD. The family study confirmed the segregation of the disease with phenotypes DR3/DR3 and DR3/DR7. The present results show that the association between CD and phenotypes DR3/DR3 and DR3/DR7 is not an exclusive characteristic of Southern coeli