OBJECTIVES: Few studies have assessed the prevalence and incidence of Parkinson’s disease (PD) in France. The objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence and incidence of PD between 2005 and 2010 using a claims and hospitalisations database. METHODS: The EGB database is a 1/97 permanent random sample of the French healthcare insurance system database linked to the national hospital discharge summary database. Data for all adults with full insurance coverage for PD, or hospitalised with main, related, or associated PD diagnosis, or with at least 3 antiparkinson agent reimbursements over a one-year period were extracted for the years 2004 to 2010. A specific and a sensitive PD criterion were defined: i) patients with a medical diagnosis of PD from full insurance coverage or hospitalisation; ii) same patients plus those without a PD medical diagnosis in the database but a drug pattern compatible with this diagnosis (a second set of at least 3 antiparkinson agent reimbursements over another one-year period and no co-medication with extrapyramidal side effects, as well as no antiparkinson agent pattern specific of another indication). EGB estimations were applied to the French population with age and gender standardization to estimate the prevalence and incidence in France. RESULTS: Prevalence of PD increased from 0.27% in 2005 to 0.33% in 2010 using the specific definition of disease, and from 0.38% to 0.46% using the sensitive definition. The incidence rate per year was 0.03-0.04% using the specific definition of disease, and 0.05-0.06% using the sensitive definition. Estimated population size was between 180,000 and 255,000 persons in 2010 with approximately 22,000 to 32,000 new patients per year. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence and incidence of PD in France are likely to be within the range of estimations found in the EGB database using the specific and sensitive definitions of disease; results are consistent with that reported internationally.