The aim of the study was to assess the mortality rate among the patients with cerebral stroke treated at the Department of Neurology of the Medical University of Lublin. The retrospective analysis included 413 patients hospitalized in 1990 and 2000. The following parameters were evaluated: the type of stroke, age, sex, the length of hospitalization, kinds of complications. The patients' age ranged from 17 to 89 years. The examinations were performed only in the patients with the determined diagnosis of stroke (confirmed clinically, by CT, MRI and anatomicopathologically). These examinations were also used to determine the type of stroke (haemorrhagic, ischaemic). The statistical analysis was carried out using the chi 2 Pearson's test; p < 0.005 was assumed to be statistically significant. The findings reveal a statistically significant decrease in the mortality rate among the patients with haemorrhagic cerebral stroke in 2000 compared to 1990. The mortality rate in the ischaemic stroke patients was also reduced, however the result was not statistically significant.