Recent publications show that mortality rates amongst young people and adolescents in some industrialised countries have increased in recent years. The addition of new diseases such as AIDS, which principally affect the young population, to those inevitable deaths brought about through causes such as traffic accidents has increased interest in this public health problem. The number of deaths and the adjusted global mortality rates amongst men and women of 15-34 years did not increase in Navarra in the 1985-1995 period. These are situated around 70 per 100,000. Changes have taken place in the pattern of causes, similar to those observed in other industrialised areas, with an increase of deaths through overdose and AIDS, and a decline in mortality due to traffic accidents in recent years. Traffic accidents were the first cause of death amongst youths until 1993. From this year onwards deaths from AIDS became the first cause amongst women, while amongst men the number of deaths from AIDS is equal to those caused by traffic accidents.