OBJECTIVES: Long-acting β2-agonists (LABAs), such as formoterol fumarate (formoterol) and salmeterol xinafoate (salmeterol), play key roles in the management of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This analysis evaluated new prescriptions of inhaled LABAs for respiratory disease in five European countries during 2011. METHODS: Data on new prescriptions for LABAs, as either a single drug or a fixed-dose combination (FDC), were collected from anonymized patient records obtained via primary care physician practice management software (Cegedim Strategic Data, Surrey, UK) from January until December 2011 in five European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and UK). New prescriptions were defined as those issued to patients who had not received a product from the selected market in the previous 12 months; patients who were prescribed a LABA or FDC therapy as a replacement for an existing therapy; and patients for whom a LABA was added to their continued, original therapy. RESULTS: Overall, there were more than 7.44 million new prescriptions for LABAs during 2011, either as monotherapy (1.38. million; 18.5%) or as FDCs (6.07 million; 81.5%). Formoterol accounted for 55.2% (4.11 million) of all new LABA prescriptions, compared with 39.7% (2.96 million) for salmeterol and 5.1% (0.38 million) for indacaterol. Formoterol comprised 53.7% of LABA monotherapy prescriptions compared with 18.8% for salmeterol and 27.5% for indacaterol. For FDCs, formoterol accounted for 55.5% of new prescriptions (budesonide/formoterol, 32.8%; beclometasone/formoterol, 22.7%) compared with 44.5% for salmeterol/fluticasone. CONCLUSIONS: Formoterol is the most commonly prescribed inhaled LABA for patients with respiratory disease, who are newly prescribed LABA therapy, as either a single drug or combination therapy, in the five largest European countries. These data may reflect, at least in part, physician preference for formoterol-containing regimens based on their well-established efficacy profile.