An aim of the present study is to evaluate the risk factors for death after a first-ever stroke within one year after stroke onset in the Kaunas population. The patient's group consisted of 331 men and women with a first-ever stroke who were treated in two Kaunas hospitals during 1997-1998. The data were collected using a "hot pursuit" approach. The methods used were those applied for the EC BIOMED-2 study. All stroke patients were followed up for one year. The end-point of the present study was death due to any cause. The relative risk estimates were based on the Cox model. Age at disease onset, impaired consciousness and incontinence were the only independent predictors of death during the first 12 months after a first-ever stroke. An increase of the patient's age by one year increased the risk of death by 4%. The impaired consciousness was associated with a 3-fold (relative risk (RR) = 2.76; p = 0.004) and incontinence with a 4-fold (RR = 3.56; p < 0.0001) risk of death during the first year after initial stroke. In addition to the factors relating to the severity of stroke, only age was a predictor of a poor outcome after a first-ever stroke.