Knowledge of the course of events and health situation for elderly stroke victims is limited. Most medical complications develop within the first weeks of a stroke, but with reference to shorter hospital stays, it is possible that some problems will not be obvious until after discharge. In total 390 patients >65 years, living in their own homes and having no dementia diagnosis prior to hospital admission, constituted the study population. Interviews with the survivors were performed 1 week after discharge, and 3 and 12 months after hospital admission. Health care records, municipal social service records, and local and national registers were scrutinized. The risk for stroke recurrence or mortality is high during the first period after a stroke incident but the risk decreases during the first six months. Almost all patients (>90%) had a health problem at any time during the year, but few in a specific week, based on patient record data. Differences between health problems reported by patients differed from problems in the health care records. The most frequently interview-reported problems were associated with perception, activity, and tiredness, while the most common record-based findings indicated pain, skin, bladder and bowel function, and breathing and circulation problems. There was co-occurrence between some problems, such as those relating to cognition, activity, and tiredness. This knowledge may be used to identify unvoiced health problems. The utilisation of care, both in hospital and primary health care, and municipality support, was considerably higher the year following the stroke admission, but with an increasing trend the year preceding the admission. With an increasing number of elderly stroke survivors, and increasing needs, this will be a challenge for the municipality and for the relatives