Overweight and obesity are highly prevalent in Kuwait and they are associated with the metabolic syndrome (MS). The present study aims to assess the prevalence of the MS among Kuwaiti female adolescents aged 10–19 years. A cross-sectional random sample of 431, apparently healthy, Kuwaiti female adolescents drawn from several randomly selected schools was studied for the prevalence of the MS using the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the National Cholesterol Education Program Third Adult Treatment Panel (ATP III) modified for age diagnostic criteria. Clinical assessment included measurements of waist circumference, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, HDL and TAG. Whichever criteria are used, the prevalence of the MS among female Kuwaiti adolescents was found to be high, which indicates an urgent need for intervention programmes to prevent increased CVD and type 2 diabetes mellitus. The IDF criteria tend to give higher values for the prevalence of the MS in comparison with the modified ATP III criteria (14·8 v. 9·1 %). There have been no diagnostic criteria specific for the MS for the Gulf Arab population as yet.