Background：Basal cell carcinoma(BCC) does not commonly occur in dark-skinned people, although it is the most common cancer of light-skinned people. So it has been known that incidence of BCC is lower than that of squamous cell carcinoma(SCC) in Asian and Africans. However, several recent Korean articles have reported the reversal of the ratio of SCC to BCC. There has been no report about BCC following a nationwide survey in Korea. Objective：Our purpose was to confirm the trends in BCC and SCC, and to identify the clinical and histopathological characteristics of BCC. Methods：A clinical and histopathological analysis was done retrospectively with patients diagnosed as BCC from the Department of Dermatology of 15 University Hospitals or General Hospitals during the last 20 years(1977-1996). Annual incidence of BCC was compared with that of SCC at the same situation. We compared the results with those in other races statistically. Results：1. Incidence of BCC was 0.16% compared with 0.11% of SCC. The increasing incidence of BCC was more pronounced than that of SCC, although they were increased gradually. 2. The male-female ratio was 1:1.07, and the most frequent age group was the 6th decade(30.1%). 95% of the patients were older than the age of 40 years with the mean age of 62.7 years. 3. The most commonly involved site was the face(84.9%), especially on the nose, cheek, and eyelids. 4. The most frequent histologic pattern was nodulocystic type(35.4%), followed by mixed(30.1%), infiltrative(9.3%), superficial(6.7%), micronodular(6.2%), adenoid(5.9%), metatypical(4.0%), morpheaform(2.1%), and fibroepithelioma type(0.3%). 5. Histologically, 45.3% of BCC contained pigment. The histologic pattern most frequently associated with pigmented BCC was mixed type(53.1%) followed by nodulocystic(51.2%),superficial(46.8%), micronodular(38.6%), and adenoid type(33.3%). 6. Overall recurrence rate was 6.3%. Morpheaform, infiltrative, and metatypical BCC have a high erincidence of recurrence(26.3%, 13.2%, 8.1%, respectively). Therapeutic modalities that showed high recurrence rate was 5-FU, curettage and electrodessication, and cryotherapy(33.3%, 28.6%, 16.8%, respectively). Conclusion：It was confirmed following a nationwide survey that increasing incidence of BCC was more pronounced than that of SCC since early 1980s and BCC was the most common skin cancer in Korea. (Korean J Dermatol 2000;38(6)：762~771)