Bulb onion (Allium cepa L.) is a globally significant crop, but the structure of genetic variation within and among populations is poorly understood. We broadly surveyed genetic variation in a cultivated onion germplasm using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers and sequenced regions flanking expressed sequence tag (EST)-SSRs to develop single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. Samples from 89 inbred and open-pollinated (OP) bulb onion populations of wide geographical adaptation and four related Allium L. accessions were genotyped with 56 EST-SSR and four genomic SSR markers. Multivariate analysis of genetic distances among populations resolved long-day, short-day, and Indian populations. EST-SSR markers frequently revealed two major alleles at high frequency in OP populations. The median proportion of single-locus polymorphic loci was 0.70 in OP and landrace populations compared with 0.43 in inbred lines. Resequencing of 24 marker amplicons revealed additional SNPs in 17 (68%) and five SNP assays were developed from these, suggesting that resequencing of EST markers can readily provide SNP markers for purity testing of inbreds and other applications in Allium genetics.