We have carried out a study of the early-type stars in nearby OB associations spanning an age range of ~3-16Myr, with the aim of determining the fraction of stars that belong to the Herbig Ae/Be class. We studied the B, A, and F stars in the nearby (<=500pc) OB associations Upper Scorpius, Perseus OB2, Lacerta OB1, and Orion OB1, with membership determined from Hipparcos (Cat. <I/239>) data. We also included in our study the early-type stars in the Trumpler 37 cluster, part of the Cep OB2 association. We obtained spectra for 440 Hipparcos stars in these associations, from which we determined accurate spectral types, visual extinctions, effective temperatures, luminosities and masses, using Hipparcos photometry.