The aim was to analyse variation in incidence of sporadic Legionnaires' disease in a geographical information system in three time periods (1990-2005) by the application of a grid model and to assess the model's validity by analysing variation according to grid position. Coordinates of the addresses at time of disease of 606 confirmed cases with Legionnaires' disease were obtained. The incidence was calculated in cells of 10 x 10 km in 25 different grids superimposed on a map of Denmark. A 95% and 99% threshold was applied to identify cells with excess incidence representing potential clusters. Four cells had excess incidence in all three time periods. The analysis in 25 different grid positions indicated a low risk of overlooking cells with excess incidence in a random grid. The coefficient of variation ranged from 0.08 to 0.11 independent of the threshold. By application of a random grid model we demonstrated that it was possible to detect small areas with excess incidence that were not detected in the present surveillance system