There is paucity of large, authentic, epidemiological studies in our country. Over the years with changing definition, a lower level of pressure (140/90) is being used as a cut-off point to define hypertension as compared to previous studies, which used higher levels of pressure (160/95). This vitiates any assessment of trends of hypertension prevalence over the past few decades. Nevertheless, there appears to be a steady increase in hypertension prevalence over the last 50 years, more in urban than in rural areas.