OBJECTIVES: Quality of life (QoL) evaluation allows to understand people`s health state perception and to compare wellbeing between different (sub)populations. No data with EQ-5D existed for the Italian population. Our objective was to evaluate QoL of the Italian general population aged 40-79 years old. METHODS: Data was collected from a population-based survey of people aged 40-79 years. Subjects randomly sampled from electronic General Practitioners (GP) lists, and accepting to participate (16 individuals per GP, with random replacement in case of refusal), underwent medical examination, blood sampling, resource utilization interview, and filled in the EQ-5D. Participation of GP's to the EQ-5D sub-study was voluntary. Results are reported as comparing data of 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th age decades. RESULTS: A total of 1956 individuals (50.0% males) from 128 GP's (approximately half of the invited GP's participated) were enrolled. Subjects reporting any problem in “mobility” were 4.3%, 9.2%, 15.6% and 32.5%; in “self-care” 1.2%, 1.0%, 3.4% and 8.5%; in “usual activities” 3.7%, 7.2%, 11.2% and 20.5%; in “pain/discomfort” 27.3%, 38.9%, 49.0% and 54.8%; in “anxiety/depression” 38.8%, 45.4%, 46.0% and 46.6%. Average EQ-VAS was 79.6, 75.7, 72.8 and 67.1, EQ-utility scores with UK tariffs were 0.88, 0.84, 0.80, and 0.77, those with Catalan tariffs were and 0.92, 0.89, 0.86 and 0.82. In general women reported lower levels of QoL than men of the same age. CONCLUSION: These are the first results available on the Italian general population's QoL with EQ-5D. Older and female subjects show more complains than younger and male ones. The most compromised areas of wellbeing are those concerning the perception of physical pain or discomfort and the perception of anxiety or depression.