Black carbon (BC) and total organic carbon (TOC) contents of UK and Norwegian background soils were determined and their relationships with persistent organic pollutants (HCB, PAHs, PCBs, co-planar PCBs, PBDEs and PCDD/Fs) investigated by correlation and regression analyses, to assess their roles in influencing compound partitioning/retention in soils. The 52 soils used were high in TOC (range 54-460 mg/g (mean 256)), while BC only constituted 0.24-1.8% (0.88%) of the TOC. TOC was strongly correlated (p<0.001) with HCB, PCBs, co-PCBs and PBDEs, but less so with PCDD/Fs (p<0.05) and PAHs. TOC explained variability in soil content, as follows: HCB, 80%; PCBs, 44%; co-PCBs, 40%; PBDEs, 27%. BC also gave statistically significant correlations with PBDEs (p<0.001), co-PCBs (p<0.01) and PCBs, HCB, PCDD/F (p<0.05); TOC and BC were correlated with each other (p<0.01). Inferences are made about possible combustion-derived sources, atmospheric transport and air-surface exchange processes for these compounds.