The epidemiology of burns is poorly documented in France. Yet these injuries can have devastating consequences, leading to significant physical and psychological sequelae, and their management requires particularly costly resources. National data from the Medical Information Systems Program were analyzed for the year 2008 in metropolitan France. All hospital stays with a primary diagnosis of burns, coded under T20 to T32, were included in the analysis. A first analysis describes hospital stays for burns: hospitalization rates, average length of stay, treatment, etc.; a second analysis describes burn victims: distribution by age, sex, severity, seasonality, incidence rates, etc. In 2008, in metropolitan France, the number of hospitalizations for burns totaled 12,778. Hospitalizations of children aged 0–4 accounted for 33% of the total. In 41% of cases, hospitalizations took place in a burn treatment center (CTB). The average length of stay was 7.5 days (11.8 days in BTCs and 4.5 days in other departments). The number of in-hospital deaths was 194, representing a case-fatality rate of 2.1%. These hospitalizations involved 8,944 patients residing in mainland France (sex ratio = 1.8). In 5% of cases, the patient had a severe burn. The average incidence was 14.4 per 100,000 inhabitants. The crude incidence was particularly high among children under 5 years of age (61/100,000), among men (19 vs. 10 among women), and showed regional disparities. These results highlight the importance of developing prevention initiatives to reduce the number of burns, particularly among children once they begin walking and among older adults, in whom burns are less frequent but more severe. Prevention also involves the adoption of regulatory measures aimed at making the environment safer, particularly in the home. (R.A.)