In 1990 the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Social Affairs decided to start an organised screening programme for cervical cancer. All women aged 25-70 years will be offered screening every three years. During the first three years of the programme, all spontaneous screening in Norway is to be reported to a central unit located at the Cancer Registry of Norway. A pilot project has been implemented in the counties of Sør-Trøndelag and Vestfold to evaluate the organisational aspects of the screening programme. A total of 509,641 smears were recorded during the first year of recording. The majority of smears were taken from women below 50 years. Most smears (88.6%) had normal tissue morphology, while 2.9% displayed various cellular changes. Smears from younger women showed the highest rate of Human papillomavirus (HPV) changes and mild (CIN 1) and moderate (CIN 2) dysplasias, whereas the rated malignant cellular changes was highest in the older age groups. The findings support the wide age range of the target group.