The Nordic Pediatric Renal Transplant Study Group was organized in 1994 to register and follow children under 16 years of age who receive renal allografts in the Nordic countries. It comprises all transplant centers in Scandinavia, four in Sweden, three in Denmark and one each in Norway and Finland. The following report is based on 430 transplantations performed in 1982-1996. 343 were first transplants and 57 were retransplants. The mean annual incidence of renal transplantations per million children below 16 years of age was 7.4. The mean incidence of retransplantations was 1.0 and therefore the mean incidence of primary transplantations was 6.5 per million children below 16 years of age. 12% of the children were less than 2 years of age, 20% 2-5 years of age and 68% 6-15 years of age. 231 (54%) of the transplants were performed with grafts from living-related donors (LD) and 199 (46%) with cadaveric grafts (CD). 72% of the children had congenital renal disorders and 28% acquired diseases. Cyclosporine-based immunosuppressive protocols were used in all centers. Antibody induction therapy (polyclonal or monoclonal) was used by only three of the nine participating centers. The mean 1-year graft survival rate for all age groups was 88% for recipients of living-donor grafts and 78% for recipients of cadaveric donor grafts.