The kind of respiratory disease, age, and areas where patients came from, were analyzed in 763 patients with COPD admitted at our hospital for last 7 years from 1992 to 1998. 1. For the last 7 years 886 patients with respiratory diseases were admitted at our hospital. Of these patients, 763 (86.1%) were those with COPD. Of the 763, 613 (80.3%) were patients with asthma, 27 with chronic bronchitis, 41 with obstructive bronchiolitis, and 87 with pulmonary emphysema. 2. The number of patients with pulmonary emphysema showed a tendency to increase. 3. The number of patients from distant areas was considerably larger (43.8% in 1997, 53.4% in 1998) compared to the number of patients from Tottori prefecture. The number of patients from Okayama, Hyogo, Osaka, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, and Ehime prefectures was predominantly larger than the number of patients from other distant areas. 4. Regarding the age distribution of these patients, the number of patients over the age of 60 was predominantly larger than the number of patients under the age of 59: patients between the ages of 60 and 69 were more frequently observed in those coming from distant areas (outside Tottori prefecture), and those over the age of 70 in those coming from Tottori prefecture.