A national nutrition survey was carried out in Saudi Arabia between 1989 and 1994. One objective was to investigate the prevalence of well established atherogenic risk factors among adults 18 years and older, namely obesity, hypercholesterolaemia, hypertriglyceridaemia, diabetes mellitus and high systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Obesity prevalence was positively correlated with all five coronary artery disease risk factors investigated. Variation among regions in relation to the prevalence of these risk factors was observed. Saudi Arabia's ecology has resulted in variation in the lifestyle and food consumption patterns of the people of the different regions, which might be a major underlying cause of the variation and high prevalence of coronary artery disease risk factors.