Data were analysed from 4859 patients with different histological types of intracranial glioma registered by the Norwegian Cancer Registry between 1955 and 1984. Glioblastoma comprised 57.9% of all cases. The second most common primary brain tumour was astrocytoma (19.0%), then mixed glioma (9.2%), oligodendroglioma (7.9%), medulloblastoma (3.1%) and ependymoma (2.9%). A primary brain tumour in a child is approximately twice as likely to be an astrocytoma as a medulloblastoma. The age-specific incidence for glioblastoma increases with age, whereas the incidence of astrocytoma and oligodendroglioma peaks at middle age. Both glioblastoma and astrocytoma showed increased incidence rates over the study period and this was most pronounced in the age-group above 60 years. The prognosis for gliomas varied with age at time of diagnosis, generally being better the younger the patient. For oligodendroglioma patients, survival prospects were independent of age at time of diagnosis. The best prognosis was seen in patients up to 30 years with astrocytoma. Applied in epidemiology, the data indicate that astrocytoma, oligodendroglioma, mixed glioma and ependymoma may be treated as a group which should be separated from both glioblastoma and medulloblastoma.