Geographic distribution in Hodgkin's disease (HD) incidence was examined for whites by age, sex and Rye histologic subtype in several regions of the US for 1969 to 1971 and 1973 to 1980, using data from national cancer surveys. Average annual age-adjusted rates (1973-1980) ranged between 2.0 and 3.6 per 100,000 persons. Significant regional variation in HD was confined to elevated rates in Connecticut and San Francisco-Oakland, and low rates in Hawaii, Atlanta, and New Orleans. In young adults (ages 20-34 years) HD was positively associated across regions with rates for children (ages 5-14 years), and with community-wide socioeconomic status (SES), but did not vary with older adult rates. Patterns of geographic variation differed among the histologic subtypes, with no significant variation for the lymphocyte predominance form. Incidence of nodular sclerosis increased with regional SES, and was inversely correlated with rates of lymphocyte predominance. Among women, HD incidence became less heterogeneous across regions with time.