British community norms (N = 376) for the Brief Symptom Inventory (Derogatis & Spencer, 1982) are presented. Means are significantly higher than previously published US norms for all symptom dimensions, and show variability according to age, sex and work status. The proportion of 'cases' in the sample is similar to other British estimates. It is recommended that culturally relevant norms should be established and used in future work with this instrument.