Spanish Americans admitted to State and county mental hospitals in the U.S. during 1972 were examined. Purpose was to show if and how they differed from admissions of other ethnic groups in terms of their demographic composition (age, sex, and marital status), their socioeconomic level as measured by educational attainment, their diagnostic composition, their legal status upon admission, and whether or not they had received psychiatric care prior to admission. Data were derived from a sample survey of admissions to the inpatient services of State and county mental hospitals conducted in October 1972 with the cooperation of State mental health authorities. Sample data were inflated to represent a full year's admissions with the year interval roughly equivalent to 1972. Some findings were: about 12,300 Spanish Americans were admitted to State and county mental hospitals in the U.S., representing 3% of all admissions to such facilities; the age-adjusted rate of admissions for Spanish Americans was 155 per 100,000 population as compared to 181 per 100,000 for other whites and 334 per 100,000 for nonwhites; the age-adjusted rate for Spanish American males (212 per 100,000) was more than twice that for Spanish American females (103 per 100,000); and age-specific admission rates for persons 14-24 years were actually higher among Spanish Americans than among other whites. (NQ)