This paper presents results of an investigation conducted to estimate the mean and design fatigue lives of self-compacting concrete and self-compacting fibre-reinforced concrete beams containing 0·5% volume fraction of steel fibres. Approximately 19 flexural fatigue tests and 90 complementary static flexural strength tests were conducted on self-compacting concrete and self-compacting fibre-reinforced concrete beam specimens of 100 × 100 × 500 mm size. The distribution of fatigue life of self-compacting concrete and self-compacting fibre-reinforced concrete at different stress levels has been examined and Weibull distribution parameters have been obtained by different methods of analysis, which are subsequently used to estimate the mean and design fatigue lives of self-compacting concrete and self-compacting fibre-reinforced concrete. The performance of self-compacting concrete and self-compacting fibre-reinforced concrete have been found to be better, in terms of reduced variability in the distribution of fatigue lives and higher mean and design fatigue lives, compared to normally vibrated concrete and normally vibrated fibre reinforced concrete.