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The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence of functional vision problems in a large unselected cosmopolitan population of primary school‐age children and to investigate whether constant clinical criteria for functional vision problems would be implemented by the practitioners involved in the screening. Refractive errors, near point of convergence, stereopsis, strabismus, heterophoria and accommodative facility were assessed for 2697 children (3–12 years) of varying racial backgrounds living in Australia. The spherical component of the refractive error ranged from −7.75 to +9.50 D (mean +0.54 D, ±0.79) with a distribution skewed towards hypermetropia; astigmatism ranged from 0 to 4.25 D (mean −0.16 D, ±0.35). There was a trend towards less hypermetropia and slightly more astigmatism with age. Mean near point of convergence was 5.4 ± 2.9 cm, heterophoria at far and near was 0.12 ± 1.58 …