The results obtained by polling 105 elderly people, aged 75 to 95 years, on the Island of Iz are presented. Several groups of questions were asked to obtain information on the demographic characteristics, economic and social status, functional and physiologic disorders, health care needs, utilization of medical services and subjective evaluation of the quality of life of the persons polled. Compared to other studies of the quality of life of the elderly, our results point to some specific characteristics of this group of people, such as functional and physiological disorders and health risks. The results have shown that health risks and their frequency depend on the life style, self-help and mutual help. Despite the high criteria set for the evaluation of individual factors determining the quality of life, the population studied was found to have a high quality of life thanks to the operation of mechanisms which improve the quality of life.