OBJECTIVE: A French national epidemiological study on migraine was presented 10 years ago at the Migraine trust. It was the first study to cover an entire country (HENRY P. et al.: Migraine prevalence in France. In New advances in headache research: 2. Ed. Clifford Rose 1991 Smith Gordon-pp. : 11-14). This study has provided also data on the burden of migraine in terms of its economic and social impact. We would like today to update the data. METHODS: 1486 persons, aged over 15 and suffering from headaches were randomly selected from a large representative sample of the French population. They were asked to complete a questionnaire, which allowed discriminating sufferers of migraine according to IHS criteria. RESULTS: Among the 1486 headache sufferers, we find 880 migrainous people (1-1, 1-2 and 1-7 IHS criteria), 454 without migrainous headache and 152 with chronic daily headache. If we compare the results of the certain migraine group (1-1 and 1-2 IHS) we find that they are identical (8,1% (1989) versus 8,2% (1999)). However, if we include the migrainous disorder group fulfilling all criteria but one (1-7 IHS), the prevalence rate for migraine headache in France between 1989 and 1999 seems to show a clear increase, rising from 12,1% to 17,3% because of less restrictive criteria than those applied ten years ago. Regarding the prevalence in general population for chronic daily headache the rate is around 3% with 1,8% for men and 3,9% for women in 1999.