The age-adjusted incidence rate for intracranial meningiomas increased from 0.6 patients per 100,000 population in the period 1963-1972 to 1.5 in 1983-1992 for males and correspondingly from 1.0 to 2.8 for females. An incidence fall-off after 70 years of age was evident, presumably because many older patients with small and asymptomatic meningiomas were undiagnosed due to the low autopsy rate in the population. The prognosis for survival in meningioma patients improved over the study period and was related to type of tumor histology and age at diagnosis.