The First National Oral Health Survey on caries prevalence was estimated on 1213 Iraqi primary schoolchildren aged 6-12 years from mixed socioeconomic levels, to provide a baseline data for future planning of dental services. The mean dift was 5.2 +/- 3.6 for the 6-year-olds and 11% of the children were caries free. For the permanent teeth caries experiences were 0.6 +/- 1.0, 1.4 +/- 1.5 and 2.7 +/- 2.4 for ages 6, 9 and 12 years respectively and the rate of caries free children were 67%, 40% and 21% for the respective ages. The majority of the dift and DIMFT indices were due to decayed teeth and almost no restorations were found.