AbstractA multiple choice test with nine statistical questions was sent to a random sample of Danish doctors to assess their knowledge of elementary statistical expressions (SD, SE,p0·05 andr). One hundred and forty eight (59 per cent) of 250 doctors answered the questions. The test was also completed by 97 participants in postgraduate courses in research methods, mainly junior hospital doctors. The median number of correct answers was 2·4 in the random sample and 4·0 in the other sample of doctors. It is concluded that the statistical knowledge of most doctors is so limited that they cannot be expected to draw the right conclusions from those statistical analyses which are found in papers in medical journals. Sixty‐five per cent of the doctors in the random sample stated that it is very important that this problem is r