The objective of this study is to survey attitudes to, and use of acupuncture in the general Norwegian population. An anonymous questionnaire was dispatched to a random sample of 1100 in the general population, and 653 responded (60.7%). Nineteen per cent of the general population, most often suffering from musculo-skeletal pain, had tried acupuncture treatment. Lack of effect of conventional medicine was most often given as the reason to try acupuncture. Acupuncture patients had tried other kinds of alternative medicine twice as often as others, most often homeopathy (P