Abstract A population study of unrelated individuals from North Poland (Gdansk area) was carried out to investigate the allele distributions of the five STR systems HUMCD4, HUMFES/FPS, HUMVWA31, HUMTH01 and ACTBP2. PCR products were separated on horizontal non-denaturing polyacrylamide gels followed by silver staining. For all STR systems analysed the distribution of observed phenotypes did not deviate from Hardy-Weinberg equlibrium. A comparison of allele distributions between Polish and other European Caucasian population samples is presented.