Subsequent to a recent (1991) narrowing of the medical legibility criteria for granting disability pensions in Norway, we wanted to follow up rejected applicants with regard to main sources of income. As setting were chosen five mainly rural municipalities on the North-West coast of Norway and the city of Trondheim. The study was carried out as a historic prospective study of a sample of rejected applicants for a disability pension, mainly based on follow-up data from local social security offices. Among a sample of 146 applicants rejected in 1990/91 and 1992, 143 (87 women and 56 men) were available for the analysis in March 1994. A rather stable 20% of the sample were occupationally active throughout three years of follow-up, this percentage being slightly higher among women than among men. In spite of the initial rejection, 25% had been granted a disability pension after two years. The rest received other kinds of public social support, or had left the labour market and had no social security support (mostly women).