Purpose: This descriptive study was aimed to assess the perceived benefits/barriers of exercise in community-dwelling adults in K city in Korea, and to provide a basic data for developing an exercise program for them as a nursing intervention. Method: The study subjects were 520 adults who lived in the K city. The data were collected from February 2 to March 5, 2002. The perceived benefits/barriers of exercise were measured by the Exercise Benefits/Barriers Scale (EBBS). The EBBS was developed by Sechrist. Walker, & Pender (1987) and revised by Jang & Shin (1999). Results: The adults reported that the exercise benefits were moderately high and the exercise barriers were moderately low. A significant relationship was found between the reported level of exercise and the perceived benefits/barriers of exercise. Age, gender, marital status, education, residence type were significantly correlated with perceived exercise benefits/barriers (p<.05). Conclusion: Community health nurses should plan exercise programs that minimize the perceived barriers to exercise and enhance the perceived benefits of exercise. In addition, those exercise programs should be implemented in the consideration of several demographic characteristics of the clinents.