CP are born at term. The aims were to describe changes in prevalence rate for children with CP born over 2,499 g (NBW) or at term (>36 wks) between 1980 and 1998 in Europe. Methods: Data were retrieved from the SCPE common database. Post-neonatal cases were excluded. Poisson regression was used to test for change in prevalence rates over time. Time trends were examined by individual years and adjusted for centre effect. Interaction between birth year and centre was tested.The threshold retained for analysis was p< 0.005. Results: Of 10,533 children with CP, data about 4,003 children registered in 15 centres and born with NBW were retained for the analysis. The type of CP was spastic in 85% of cases, dyskinetic in 9% and ataxic in 6%. Half of the children had an intellectual impairment and/or were unable to walk without assistance (defined as severe or moderate case). Two centres were analysed separately as they had trends significantly different from other centres. The prevalence rate of CP for the remaining centres was 1.16 per 1000 live births (CI 99%, 0.88 1.48) in 1980 and 0.99 (0.80 1.20) in 1998, the decrease being not significant (p=0.14). However, there were significant changes over time in the spastic CP subtypes, with a decrease in the bilateral spastic form (p<0.001) for both NBW and term children, and an increase in the unilateral spastic form (p=0.004) only significant for NBW children. There was no significant change in the prevalence rate of severe or moderate types. Conclusion: For children born NBW or at term, prevalence rates of CP in Europe were observed to remain stable despite a significant decrease in neonatal mortality rates in the last two decades.