A randomly selected age-stratified sample of subjects 76 years of age and older living in the Melton Mowbray area was examined by an ophthalmologist and an ophthalmic optician. Over a two-year period 484 subjects were examined, with a response rate of 71.5 per cent. The prevalence rates for the major sight threatening conditions in the elderly were determined: senile cataract 46.1 per cent, senile macular degeneration 41.5 per cent and open angle glaucoma 6.6 per cent. These figures are compared to the results of other epidemiological surveys of the elderly.