ABSTRACTThe derivation of population norms using simple generic health‐related quality of life measures to inform policy has been recommended in the literature. This letter illustrates the derivation of population norms for the SF‐6D in the United Kingdom. It uses a sample of 22,166 respondents from the 2010 wave of the study Understanding Society. Understanding Society is a national representative sample of British citizens. The survey of this study contains the SF‐12. It is possible to derive health state utilities from the SF‐12 (and from the SF‐36) using a relatively new instrument, the SF‐6D. The SF‐12 and the SF‐36 belong to the most widely used generic health‐related quality of life measures.Mean SF‐6D utility scores for males and females are 0.81 and 0.79, respectively. Especially the older age categories have lower utility scores. The younger age categories have slightly higher utility scores. From a list of 17 conditions, people with congestive heart failure had the lowest (0.60) and people with diabetes the highest (0.76) SF‐6D scores. This letter encourages the health economics research community to derive SF‐6D population norms to inform policy. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.