A study was designed to identify conditions of frailty in relation to social, demographic, health, cognitive, functional, and psychosocial variables in community-dwelling elderly. The article presents the methodology and preliminary data. A total of 3,478 elderly (65 years and older) were selected from probabilistic samples of seven Brazilian cities chosen by convenience and participated in a data collection session in a community setting. The following characteristics predominated: women (67.7%), married (48%) or widowed (36.4%), living with a son or daughter and family (52.6%), head of family (64.5%), and 1-4 years of schooling (49%); 28.8% were illiterate and 24.8% presented a cognitive deficit; 9.1% were frail, 51.8% pre-frail, and 39.1% non-frail. There were more frail individuals among women, those 80 years or older, the widowed, the illiterate, those who had never attended school, and those with cognitive deficit. In general, the social and demographic data corroborate Brazilian epidemiological studies, while those on frailty, cognitive status, and schooling corroborate the international literature.