Abstract. In this paper we let G be a simple algebraic group and r be a natural number, and consider the codimension in G of the variety of elements g ∈ G satisfying g r = 1. We shall obtain a lower bound for this codimension which is independent of characteristic, and show that it is attained if G is of adjoint type.Let G be a simple algebraic group over an algebraically closed field K of characteristic p; let Φ be the root system of G, and take r ∈ N. Defineand(where o(g) denotes the order of g); then G [r] and G (r) are both subvarieties of G, and G [r] is the disjoint union of those G (r ) with r dividing r. Our attention here is on the codimension in G of these varieties (if they are non-empty; clearly G [r] = ∅, but the example of G = SL 2 (K), p = 2 and r = 4 shows that G (r) may be empty). It is immediate that if G (r) = ∅ we have codim G (r) ≥ codim G [r] . Our main result may be stated as follows. Statements equivalent to the inequality codim G (r) ≥ |Φ|/r are already known in certain cases. If r = 2 and p = 2, the equivalent statement that, if g ∈ G is an involution, then dim C G (g) ≥ dim(G/B) (where B is a Borel subgroup), is well known; the stronger statement that C G (g) is then spherical, i.e., it has finitely many orbits on the flag variety G/B, was proved by Matsuki in [13] for K = C, and by Springer in [19] for p odd-recently Seitz gave an alternative proof of Springer's result in [16]. In the case r = 3 and p = 3, the result follows from work of Liebeck and Shalev in [10]; this case and that with r = 2 are used in work of Liebeck, Seitz and the author concerning dimensions of fixed point spaces in [9]. More generally, for r an odd prime a result in this direction appears in further work of Liebeck and Shalev in [11], while the results proved here find application in [12] to homomorphisms from Fuchsian groups to finite simple groups.