We present an all-sky catalogue of 2970 nearby (d<~50pc), bright (J<9) M- or late K-type dwarf stars, 86% of which have been confirmed by spectroscopy. This catalogue will be useful for searches for Earth-size and possibly Earth-like planets by future space-based transit missions and ground-based infrared Doppler radial velocity surveys. Stars were selected from the SUPERBLINK proper motion catalogue (Cat. I/298) according to absolute magnitudes, spectra, or a combination of reduced proper motions and photometric colours. From our spectra, we determined gravity-sensitive indices, and identified and removed 0.2% of these as interloping hotter or evolved stars. 13% of the stars exhibit H{alpha} emission, an indication of stellar magnetic activity and possible youth. The mean metallicity is [Fe/H]=-0.07 with a standard deviation of 0.22dex, similar to nearby solar-type stars. We determined stellar effective temperatures by least-squares fitting of spectra to model predictions calibrated by fits to stars with established bolometric temperatures, and estimated radii, luminosities, and masses using empirical relations. 6% of stars with images from integral field spectra are resolved doubles. We inferred the planet population around M dwarfs using Kepler data and applied this to our catalogue to predict detections by future exoplanet surveys.