The principal aim of this study was to construct for the purpose of a larger social psychiatric investigation an attitude scale, which measures attitudes toward mental illness. As research population was a sample of 200 people from two rural communities belonging to the same mental health district: The scale was constructed according to the method of Likert. From initially 80 items 20 were chosen to the final scale, reliability being 0.8966. The items were also factor-analysed, but clear factors could not be obtained. When studying the attitudes of the research population by the scale now constructed, there were no differences between the communities as a whole. In the other community (Keikyä), which was largely industrialized, the attitudes of the men were more positive than those of the women; the difference was statistically almost significant. But in the other mainly agricultural community (Alastaro) there was not such a difference between the sexes. The differences of attitudes between age groups were statistically significant: the younger a person the more positive were the attitudes.