Abstract. Random dispersions of spheres are useful and appropriate models for a wide class of particulate random materials. They can be described in two equivalent and alternative ways - either by the multipoint moments of the characteristic function of the region, occupied by the spheres, or by the probability densities of the spheres' centers. On the `two-point' level, a simple and convenient integral formula is derived which interconnects the radial distribution function of the spheres with the two-point correlation of the said characteristic function. As one of the possible applications of the formula, the behaviour of the correlation function near the origin is studied in more detail and related to the behaviour of the radial distribution function at the `touching' separation of the spheres.