A retrospective study was made to determine relative incidence of lymphoma subtypes in Malaysia. High grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was found to be common. Low grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and Hodgkin's disease were relatively rare in this Malaysian series. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of B-cell immunophenotype was four times as common as that of T-cell lineage. There was a high incidence of primary extranodal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.