A nationwide study of lung cancer in Israel during 1968-70 demonstrated a low to moderate incidence in men and a high incidence in women, as compared with other countries. The sex ratio was relatively lower than expected. This discrepancy results from a low rate of squamous cell carcinoma in men and a high rate of adenocarcinoma in women, and is consistent with similar, previously observed trends in North American Jews from New York, Pittsburgh and Montreal. The literature relating to the relative frequencies of various histological subcategories of lung cancer is reviewed and the importance, for etiology and prognosis, of a separate assessment of each distinct cell-type entity is emphasized.