Answers were obtained from 1106 (91 %) of a randomly selected sample of persons, aged 15–74 years, who were sent a questionnaire on chewing ability, chewing habits and some general and oral disorders. The questionnaire revealed that chewing ability was closely correlated to the number of residual teeth, but a loss of up to 7 teeth did not seem to entail an assessment of impairment. One fourth of the complete denture wearers reported that they could not chew all sorts of food. Unilateral chewing was reported by about one third, was more frequent in individuals with an unequal distribution of teeth and was correlated to impaired chewing ability. Both reduced chewing ability and unilateral chewing was closely correlated to increasing number of symptoms of dysfunction of the masticatory system. In all age-groups reduced chewing ability and unilateral chewing were reported more frequently by people who considered their general state of health impaired than by the healthy subjects.