This study was planned to investigate the prevalence and risk factors of anemia and its impact on health-related quality of life and activities of daily living (ADL) in elderly Koreans. Of the 1,118 randomly sampled elderly Koreans aged 65 years or older living in Seongnam, Korea, on Aug. 1, 2005, we estimated the prevalence of anemia from 695 responders. We investigated the risk factors of anemia using a merged sample of this random sample and 270 volunteers enrolled from Seongnam residents aged 85 years or older. We diagnosed anemia according to the World Health Organization criteria. The estimated age- and gender-standardized prevalence of anemia was 8.33 % for the overall random sample (95 % confidence intervals (CI) 6.28-10.39), 10.58 % in men (95 % CI 7.09-14.07), and 6.85 % in women (95 % CI 4.37-9.34). The identified risk factors were age ≥80 years, male, iron deficiency, history of stroke, renal dysfunction, and metabolic syndrome. Anemia was associated with impairment in physical functioning (p = 0.031) and instrumental ADL (p < 0.001). This is the first report about anemia's prevalence in community-dwelling Korean elders, adjusted and standardized according to the city's and nation's population. Timely diagnosis of anemia and correction of its treatable cause may improve QOL and ADL in elderly individuals.