The numbers of patients admitted with burns, as an expression of the incidence of burns, registered in the Burns Unit, Odense University Hospital were compared for two ten-year periods: 1968-1977 and 1978-1987. A total of 1,548 hospitalized patients were involved. The etiology of the accidents, distributed according to sex, age and degree of severity and the number of deaths were calculated. A significant decrease in the total number of burning accidents was demonstrated, mainly due to the decrease in children aged 0-5 years and 6-15 years. Where the youngest children were concerned, this decrease was due to a decline in the number of scalds but also because of reductions in the number of contact burns and electrical and corrosive injuries. This was corrected for the altered age distribution with relatively fewer children during the second decade.