OBJECTIVES: The typical course of schizophrenia starts with a premorbid phase, followed by a phase of symptomatic but unrecognised/treated disease, and acute exacerbations with more or less partial remission phases in between. The objective of this study is to describe patients with symptomatic remission in an observational longitudinal study of patients with schizophrenia, and to identify potential risk factors.  METHODS: We used data from EuroSC, a European 2-year cohort study, with assessments of clinical outcomes every 6 months. Remission was defined as a mild or lower level on 8 key items of Positive And Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS) - P1, P2, P3, N1, N4, N6, G5 and G9 - for at least 6 months. Symptomatic remission was described at each visit. Bivariate analyses were then conducted to compare groups in terms of symptoms severity, functioning, quality of life and economic burden. A repeated logistic model was finally used to identify risk factors associated with symptomatic remission. RESULTS: The proportion of patients achieving symptomatic remission within 2 years was 36%. This outcome was found to be stable over time: 72% of patients achieving symptomatic remission at any visit remained in remission at the next visit. Significant differences were found between groups in terms of severity (p < 0.0001), functioning (p < 0.0001), quality of life (p < 0.0001) and most of the resource use components (p < 0.0001). Factors associated with remission included baseline depression level (p= 0.005), baseline severity of symptoms (p < 0.0001), baseline functioning (p < 0.0001), and compliance level (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: This research indicates that patients in symptomatic remission have better social functioning, better quality of life and lower resource use than other patients. Achieving symptomatic remission should be an important treatment goal in the treatment of schizophrenia.