Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies were performed in the community (in this paper changed to city) of Jönköping, Sweden, over a period of 20 years to follow changes in oral health and oral health behaviour. To widen our knowledge about dental health and dental care among the adult population, we expanded the study in 1993 to cover the whole county. The specific aim of the present study was to describe tooth loss (excluding third molars) and periodontal bone level in adult residents of Jönköping County and to compare these two parameters in adults living in the city of Jönköping with the same in adults living in the rest of the county. Random samples of individuals 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 years old were selected. A total of 484 persons from the city and 1219 subjects from the rest of the county were examined. A total of 32 (7%) and 27 (2%) persons were completely edentulous in the examined populations from the city and from the rest of the county, respectively. A majority belonged to the older age groups, 60 and 70 years, with 17% of the subjects in the city being edentulous compared with 13% in the rest of the county. The mean number of missing teeth in subjects in the city versus subjects in the rest of the county was 0.75/0.95, 1.37/1.60, 3.34/2.43, 6.34/7.40, and 9.95/10.26 in 30-, 40-, 50-, 60-, and 70-year-olds, respectively. Of all the different tooth types, the average number of molars per person decreased the most with increasing age from an average of 7.79/7.83 (city/county) to 3.06/3.09 (city/county) for 30- and 70-year-olds, respectively. The proportion of subjects without molars was higher in the older age groups in both the city and the rest of the county with 4.8/10.7% and 15.6/22.0% of the 60- and 70-year-olds, respectively, lacking molars. In both populations, the mean periodontal bone level decreased with age. It was concluded that no important differences in tooth loss and periodontal health could be seen between the two populations. When organising dental care, dental health administrators could apply the findings from the population in the city to the entire county.