OBJECTIVES: The human papillomavirus is the most common sexually transmitted disease in America. This virus will affect 6.2 million Americans this year. Most cases of HPV come from sexual contact or vaginal delivery from an infected mother. It is the objective of this study to gain more knowledge about HPV in order to be able to control or prevent the spreading of this virus. METHODS: A data set of over 22,000 pediatric patients from the 2005 National Inpatient Sample was used for analysis with SAS Enterprise Guide to examine different characteristics of HPV. From SAS, we were able to set up one way frequencies, pie charts, kernel densities, and logistic and linear regressions to compare and contrast different aspects of HPV. We also examined patient diagnosis and procedure codes. RESULTS: The most prominent age groups affected by HPV are young children and adolescents. This is a concern since there is a strong relationship to cervical cancer in later life. Although two types of the virus (16 and 18) are responsible for 70% of cervical cancers, less than 1% of the patients in our sample died with HPV. This virus is not costly to detect or treat with the majority of the patients charged around $5,000 from hospitalization with the virus. We found that 90% of patients with a URI also had HPV. We found many statistically significant relationships between demographics, procedures, and diagnoses, and length of stay or total charges of the patient. CONCLUSIONS: Further research is still needed for doctors to be able to prevent or cure HPV. Trial medications are out on the market targeting young females, but surprisingly, more males have HPV because they are the carriers of this virus. We need to focus more time and money to find a cure for HPV.