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Summary On June 30, 1961, some 48,000 patients were on the active records of California State mental hospitals. This paper describes an analysis of this population based on its distribution by year of first admission, from 1893 through 1961. The approach differs in some respects from the follow-up technique usually employed in the analysis of mental hospital population movement. The data illustrate the fact that a hospital population is composed of two different groups—recent admissions, and the accumulated chronic residuals of admissions in earlier years. One half of the patients on the records of California State mental hospitals were first admitted prior to 1955. When these data were plotted by year of first admission, similarities were noted between the resident population and the population in family care, suggesting that the two statuses have certain resemblances. The population on home leave and the population on unauthorized absence were likewise found to have similar patterns. The ratio of patients in family care to patients resident in the hospitals increases with each succeeding decade of admissions. The paper closes with some suggestions for further research, derived from these preliminary data.