The fiber texture and magnetic anisotropy of evaporated iron films have been studied as a function of film thickness. It is found that there are three textures present: [110], [111], and [221]. In thin films, the [111] texture is dominant. It is also found that the magnetic anisotropy is of the order of 2×104ergs/cm3for 350‐A films and decreases with increasing thickness.On the basis of this experiment and information from earlier experiments, several theories of the origin of magnetic anisotropy in films are examined, and shown to be inadequate for iron films. A theory for the origin of the anisotropy is proposed, based primarily on the magnetic energy associated with an array of vacancy needles. These vacancy needles can also qualitatively explain the resistivity anisotropy and dichroism observed by other workers.