Abstract: We study a new five-parameter model called the extended Dagum distribution. The proposed model contains as special cases the log-logistic and Burr III distributions, among others. We derive the moments, generating and quantile functions, mean deviations and Bonferroni, Lorenz and Zenga curves. We obtain the density function of the order statistics. The parameters are estimated by the method of maximum likelihood. The observed information matrix is determined. An application to real data illustrates the importance of the new model.