It has become increasingly evident that Tourette's syndrome (TS) is not as rare as was once thought and substantial cohorts from various parts of the world have been reported. The clinical characteristics seem independent of culture as they appear to occur with some degree of uniformity irrespective of the country of origin. We investigated the point prevalence and report the clinical characteristics of TS in New Zealand. Forty probable cases were identified and the symptoms were similar to those described in cohorts from other parts of the world.