The first GC and GC/MS analyses of the essential oils hydrodistilled from dry leaves of Arctostaphylos uva-ursi and Vaccinium vitis-idaea enabled the identification of 338 components in total (90.4 and 91.7% of the total GC peak areas, respectively). Terpenoids, fatty acids, fatty acid- and carotenoid derived compounds were predominant in the two samples. Both oils were characterized by high relative percentages of α-terpineol and linalool (4.7-17.0%). Compositional data on the volatiles of the presently analyzed and some other Ericaceae taxa (literature data) were mutually compared by means of multivariate statistical analyses (agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis). This was done in order to determine, based on the essential oil profiles, possible mutual relationships of the taxa within the family, especially that of species from the genera Arctostaphylos and Vaccinium. Results of the chemical and statistical analyses pointed to a strong relation between the genera Vaccinium and Arctostaphylos.