The etiology of and suspected risk factors leading to mild mental retardation were analyzed in unselected series of 109 Bahraini school children with this condition born between 1967 and 1982. The cause was considered to be prenatal in 38.5% of the children; perinatal (asphyxia and prematurity), in 11.9%; and postnatal, in 7.4%. In 42% the cause was untraceable. Predisposing background factors associated with mild mental retardation were compared with characteristics of a matched control group from community schools. An illiterate father, consanguinity, and a relative with mental retardation were significantly more common among the sample with mild mental retardation. These results are not consistent with the view that mild retardation is predominantly cultural-familial and not pathological in nature.