The carriage and antibiotic susceptibility patterns of Staphylococcus aureus in the community were determined. Nasal, throat and axillary swabs were taken from 100 healthy adults and 90 disabled nursing home inmates. Antibiotic disc susceptibility testing was conducted following the NCCLS method. Staphylococcus aureus carriage was noted in 29% of healthy adults and 47.7% of nursing home inmates. Out of 79 strains, resistance to antibiotics were as follows; penicillin (92.4%), genetamicin (2.5%), tetracycline (6.3%), fusidic acid (11.3%), erythromycin (3.8%), pefloxacin (5.1%), mupirocin (3.8%), amikacin (3.8%), ciprofloxacin (2.5%) and chloramphenicol (2.5%). Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was not isolated. Multiple colonizations and multi-antibiotic resistant Staphylococcus aureus were shown to occur in healthy individuals without risk factors and not previously hospitalized.