From January 1969 to December 1980, 8,948 patients with esophageal carcinoma were registered in Japan. Among these patients, 5,506 underwent resection. The ten-year survival rate was 12.3 percent for all registered patients and 18.7 percent for resected cases. Female patients had significantly better survival rates than male patients. Depth of invasion correlated better with ten-year survival than the superficial extent of the tumor. The TNM classification revised in 1987 was examined in relation to the survival, and it was found to have good prognostic value.