The combined burden of psychosocial (Achenbach scales), cognitive (Raven matrices), and executive function (EF) problems was studied in a population-based sample of 6- to 12-year-old children with epilepsy (n = 162; 99 males, 63 females) and in an age- and sex-matched control group (n = 107; 62 males, 45 females). Approximately 35% of the children with epilepsy had severe non-verbal cognitive problems. In those that did not, mild cognitive problems (26% vs 11%, p = 0.005), EF problems (31% vs 11%, p less than 0.001), and psychosocial problems (45% vs 10%, p less than 0.001) were each much more common than among controls. Having problems in two or all three of these areas simultaneously was more frequent among the children with epilepsy (14% vs. 3%, p less than 0.001 and 4% vs 0%, p less than 0.001 respectively). Excluding those having remote symptomatic epilepsy aetiology did not change the problem load significantly for the children with epilepsy with the important exception that having severe non-verbal problems was approximately halved from 35 to 18%. In 30 children with benign epilepsy of childhood with centrotemporal spikes, mild cognitive problems were somewhat more common, but psychosocial and EF problems were similar compared with control children. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)