OBJECTIVE: COPD is a progressive and debilitating disease. The purpose of this study was to directly characterize utility and hospital resource use in people with COPD. METHODS: Data were abstracted from the Health Outcomes Data Repository (HODaR) describing the treatment patterns and outcomes of 299 subjects with COPD with corresponding lung function measurements. Patients were classified according to the GOLD classification based on their actual to predicted FEV1 values. Predicted FEV1 values were estimated from a subjects' height, age and sex. These patients were hospital treated subjects. Total mean number of visits to/from a GP and practice nurse were calculated in the six weeks prior to the survey, along with a measure of utility (EQ5Dindex). RESULTS: Of the 299 subjects, there were 11 (3.7%), 74 (24.7%), 140 (46.8%) and 74 (24.7%) in GOLD classes I to IV, respectively. There was an inverse association between the GOLD classification and mean EQ5Dindex: 0.52 (0.27), 0.44 (0.34), 0.42 (0.33) and 0.39 (0.31), for GOLD classes I to IV, respectively. Regarding resource use, in the year prior to their most recent FEV1 measurement was on average 2.1, 2.3, 2.4 and 2.1 hospital admissions for GOLD I to IV, respectively. Additionally, the mean length of stay in the previous year was 11.6, 16.6, 17.7 and 17.3 days, correspondingly. Mean (SD) primary care visits increased from 2.9 (2.5) per person for GOLD-I to 4.6 (7.4) for GOLD-IV, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The EQ5Dindex estimates showed clearly that this disease results in very poor quality of life, and that this is inversely associated with disease severity. COPD was also extremely resource intensive in all stages of disease severity. The changes in the lungs of patients with COPD are irreversible; however, active chronic disease management strategies may impact on the financial and humanistic cost of this disease.