A prospective incidence study was carried out in the French Caribbean island of Martinique between May 1st 1994 and April 31st 1995. incidence was 80.6 (77.7 when standardized with 1990 U.S. population). This incidence was higher than that observed in the Swiss canton of Geneva where the same methodology was used. The individualized risk factors of first provoked and unprovoked seizures in Martinique were alcoholism, head trauma and cerebro-vascular accidents.