Solid Certified Reference Materials (CRMs) with known vanadium(+5) content are currently not commercially available. Because of this, vanadium species have been determined in solid CRMs of soil, viz. CRM023-50, CRM024-50, CRM049-50, SQC001 and SQC0012. These CRMs are certified with only total vanadium content. Vanadium(+5) was extracted from soil reference materials with 0.1 M Na2CO3. The quantification of V(+5) was carried out by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ET-AAS). The concentration of V(+5) in the analyzed CRMs was found to be ranging between 3.60 and 86.0 mu g g(-1). It was also found that SQC001 contains approximately 88% of vanadium as V(+5) species. Statistical evaluation of the results of the two methods by paired t-test was in good agreement at 95% level of confidence. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.