PURPOSE: To verify the prevalence of phonological disorders according to age, gender and socioeconomic level of children from Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. METHODS: The sample comprised 2880 children of both genders from low, middle and high socioeconomic levels enrolled in public schools from Salvador, with ages ranging from 4 years to 6 years and 11 months. Initially, all children were individually screened for speech-language and hearing disorders. Moreover, an anamnesis was conducted with caregivers/parents, and teachers answered to an interview. After that, a phonological assessment and a contrastive analysis were conducted, in order to diagnose children with phonological disorders. The prevalence of phonological disorder was calculated, and statistical analyses were performed. RESULTS: The prevalence of speech disorders was 9.17%. It was verified a higher prevalence of phonological disorders for male subjects. In addition, when genders were associated to the variables "age" and "socioeconomic status", the prevalence varied statistically. CONCLUSION: Biological and social factors might influence the acquisition of phonological skills of oral language. Prevention measures and actions directed to identifying and treating phonological disorders should consider the different classes of socioeconomic development.