BACKGROUND The incidence of peptic ulcer disease was expected to decrease following the introduction of acid inhibitors and Helicobacter pylori eradication. OBJECTIVE To analyse possible changes in the incidence of bleeding peptic ulcer, treatment and mortality over time. METHODS Residents of Malmö hospitalized for bleeding gastric or duodenal ulcer disease during 1987-2004 were identified in hospital databases (n = 1610). The material was divided into 6-year periods to identify changes over time. All patients who had been submitted to emergency surgery (n = 137) were reviewed. RESULTS The incidence rate for bleeding gastric or duodenal ulcers decreased by one half in males and by one-third in females and emergency operations decreased significantly (9.2%, 7.5% and 5.7% during the three time periods, respectively (P < 0.05). The post-operative mortality tended to decrease (9.7, 2.4 and 3.7%, respectively) and the 30-day mortality rates in the whole material were 1.2%, 3.6% and 3.4% during the different time periods. CONCLUSIONS The incidence of bleeding gastric and duodenal ulcer disease has decreased markedly. Operative treatment has been replaced by endoscopic treatment. The bleeding ulcer-related mortality was less than 4% and has not changed over time.