Abstract Background Cholesterol-lowering therapy with statins is recommended in established cardiovascular disease (CVD) and should be considered for patients at high cardiovascular risk. We surveyed statin treatment before first-time myocardial infarction in clinical practice compared to current guidelines, in patients with and without known CVD in primary care clinics with general practitioners (GPs) on short-term contracts vs. permanent staff GPs. Methods A total of 931 patients (345 women) in northern Sweden were enrolled in the study between November 2009 and December 2014 and stratified by prior CVD, comprising angina pectoris, revascularisation, ischaemic stroke or transitory ischaemic attack, or peripheral artery disease. Primary care clinics were classified by the proportion of GP salaries that were paid to GPs working on short-term contracts: low (0–9 %), medium (10–39 %), or high (≥40 %). We used logistic regression to identify determinants of statin treatment. Results Among patients with prior CVD, only 34.5 % received statin treatment before myocardial infarction. The probability of statin treatment decreased with age (≥70 years OR 0.30; 95 % CI 0.13–0.66) and female gender (OR 0.39; 95 % CI 0.20–0.78) but increased in patients with diabetes (OR 3.52; 95 % CI 1.75–7.08). Among patients with prior CVD, the type of primary care clinic was not predictive of statin treatment. In the entire study cohort, 17.3 % of patients were treated with statins; women