The impurity distributions in the barrier anodic films formed on aluminium in a wide variety of electrolytes have been investigated by glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GDOES) depth profiling. The depth profiles obtained were compared, wherever available, with those obtained by other techniques. It was found that GDOES profiling is an extremely powerful and reliable technique for depth profiling analysis of thin, non-conducting alumina films. Surface charging is insignificant and the sputtering rate of the film is kept constant throughout the analysis, giving rise to excellent depth resolution which is comparable to, or better than, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) depth profiling analysis. Further sensitivity is also high, given the amount of impurity species being detected successfully. Thus, GDOES is expected to play a great role in depth profiling analysis of non-conducting anodic alumina films or other films where SIMS depth profiling is only of limited use due to ion beam bombardment-induced sample surface charging which has significant influence on the sputtering rate of the films.