OBJECTIVES: 1) To estimate the prevalence of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) in French women; 2) to measure the impact of SUI severity on quality of life; and 3) to identify sociodemographic factors associated with the severity of SUI. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study 5160 randomly selected women (age 18 to 70 years) were interviewed by phone in 2002. The SUI was defined as “having had at least one episode of urine leakage during the past 30 days at time of effort”. Pregnant women or women with less than three months since last delivery were excluded. Women suffering from SUI were classified into two groups according to the frequency of urine losses: 1)first group: > two urine losses per day; and 2)second group: < two urine losses per day. The effects of the symptoms on the quality of life were evaluated using the validated French version of the Contilife© scale. This scale includes a global index of quality of life and six sub-domains. Furthermore, additional data were collected on the demographic profile of these women (age, number of children, education level). Relationships between level of urinary symptoms and patient characteristics were measured using analysis of variance and chi-square tests where appropriate. RESULTS: The actual prevalence of female SUI was 19.4% (CI95%: 18.3, 20.5). Among the women suffering from SUI, 9.1% had at least 14 urine losses per week. Level of symptoms was closely related quality of life. Comparing the two groups, we observed some relationships between level of symptoms and socio-demographics. CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of SUI in French women was high. Women with SUI had a marked decrease in their quality of life. There was an inverse relation between level of urinary symptoms and quality of life: as the intensity of symptoms increased, the quality of life decreased.