Аннотация:Species list of the Black Sea free-living benthic ciliates was compiled using most of the published sources available as well as original data. The total list presented contains 476 species from 147 genera. The Romanian and Bulgarian coasts were the richest ones (299 and 253 species), then followed the northeastern part of the sea (144 species) and the northwestern part (83 species). Statistical analysis using species/genera ratio, average taxonomic diversity and its variance showed that the latter two regions had significantly low taxonomic diversity due to disproportional under- or over-representation of some taxa. The Black Sea benthic ciliofauna appears to be the richest one of all the seas studied.