OBJECTIVES: To describe time trend of incidence and mortality of thyroid cancer in France; to describe this evolution by histological group in the areas covered by a cancer registry; to provide five years survival by histology, using data from French cancer registries. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Descriptive epidemiology of data provided by cancer registries and of mortality data; estimation of relative survival using the follow-up of cases; national estimation of incidence and mortality. RESULTS: Incidence of thyroid cancer has dramatically increased since 25years in France with strong discrepancies between areas. This increase corresponds to the increase of the incidence of papillary cancer. Survival of thyroid cancer depends on histological group: survival of papillary cancers is high and survival of anaplastic cancer is very low. CONCLUSION: The increase of thyroid cancer frequency is very strong. Today, this cancer is of one of the most frequent among women. Even if prognosis of histological type that is increasing is good, it is useful to identify causes of this increase.