One hundred and ninety-four subjects aged 65-78 years from rural and urban areas of the south-western region of Nigeria have been surveyed for height, weight, upper arm, hip and waist circumferences. The 24-hour dietary recall technique was also employed to assess their dietary energy intake. In both rural and urban cohorts, male subjects were significantly taller and weighed more (p < 0.05) than female subjects. There were no significant differences in the height of rural groups and their respective urban groups, although urban males and females weighed significantly (p < 0.05) more than their respective rural counterparts. Mean body mass index (BMI) ranged from 18.4 to 21.1 kg m(-2), and 73% of all subjects had a BMI below 20% and 10% were below 18.5. Waist, hip and upper arm circumferences of urban cohorts consistently exceeded those of rural subjects, although only for females were these differences statistically (p < 0.05) significant. Significant differences observed in the energy intake (per kg body weight) are offered as one explanation for the superior anthropometric indices of urban as compared with rural elderly in Nigeria.