Introduction. Lack of awareness of warning signs of stroke is a factor that contribute to late patient arrival to the emergency department. Objective. The goal of this pilot study was to determine the baseline knowledge of stroke among the population (terminology, signs-symptoms, risk factors and attitude) prior to educational campaigns. Patients and methods. A population-based interview using closed-ended questions was conducted by neurologists among 100 users of the Vall d’Hebron’s Primary Health Center, randomly sampled. Results.In our population a 9% unknowns totally the disease, of the remainder, 42% has a good knowledge of signs-symptoms and 46% of risk factors. Only 22% of the sample has good global knowledge of the disease. If suffering a stroke this population should seek medical attention through 911 (46.2%) or come directly to the emergency department (50.5%). If symptoms were gone away, transient ischemic attack (TIA), appears a trend to contact primary physicians (59.3%). Respondents aged >65 years were less likely to recognize symptoms (p= 0.001) and to consider stroke as an emergency. Respondents with an affected relative (50.5%) tend to locate more exactly the disease at the brain (p= 0.05) and to arrive earlier to the emergency department (p= 0.045), than those with non-affected relatives.Conclusions. Less than a quarter of our population have a good knowledge of the disease. Stroke is considered an emergency unlike TIA. The information about stroke is theoretically associated with early presentation to the emergency department. These results permit a redesign of the questionnaire to conduct a second phase of the study and generalize them for the Spanish population