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To establish the prevalence of urinary incontinence in non-institutionalized Dutch women and determine the consequences of urinary incontinence for their quality of life.Cross sectional questionnaire survey.A random sample of 1905 women aged 45-70 years of the population of Zeist, the Netherlands, were sent a questionnaire. Generic quality of life was measured with the RAND-36 and disease specific quality of life was measured with a Dutch translation of the Urogenital Distress Inventory (UDI) and Incontinence Impact Questionnaire (IIQ). Based on the answers to the questionnaire four groups of women were formed: no incontinence, only stress, only urge or a combination of stress and urge incontinence. These 4 groups were compared as to questionnaire scores.A total of 1086 questionnaires could be analysed. The prevalence of urinary incontinence was 57.1%: 28.7% stress incontinence, 5.6% urge incontinence and 22.7% both. Of those who reported urinary incontinence 6% were severely inconvenienced by it. Women with urinary incontinence reported a decrease in physical functioning and vitality as compared with women without incontinence (RAND-36). Especially women with urge or a combination of stress and urge incontinence had more severe impairment of their quality of life as compared to women with only stress incontinence.The prevalence of urinary incontinence is higher than it is usually reported. Especially the urge component affects the quality of life in a negative way.