Recent literature concerning the epidemiology and the risk factors of cerebral palsy was reviewed. This search indicates that the prevalence of CP has stabilized in the last few years. Some studies have shown its tendency to decrease, especially in the group of preterm babies born later than 27 weeks of gestation. The important finding is that improvement of the survival rate in the VLBW infants does not increase CP morbidity. Other diagnostic procedures are discussed but head ultrascan remains the golden standard in CP diagnosis during the first 12 months of life, followed by MRI in the second year of life. The first part of this paper is a comparison between the epidemiological studies EPICURE and EPIPAGE from England and France and the Polish regional programme PREMATURITAS. In this study long-term development of preterm infants was evaluated. In all three studies the prevalence of CP was similar, but in the Polish programme the incidence of tetraplegia was highest. The principal factor behind this difference are more frequent changes in the head scan in the Polish study, in form of periventricular leucomalacia (PVL III degree) and IV grade intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH IV grade).