Postnatal developmental stages of lung parenchyma in rhesus monkeys is about one-third that of humans. Alveoli in humans are reported to be formed up to 8 years of age. We used design based stereologic methods to estimate the number of alveoli (N_alv) in male and female rhesus monkeys over the first 7 years of life. Twenty-six rhesus monkeys (13 males ranging in age from 4 - 1920 days and lung volumes from 41.7 - 602 cm³; 13 females ranging in age from 22 - 2675 days and lung volumes from 43.5 - 380 cm³) were necropsied and lungs fixed, isotropically oriented, fractionated, sampled, embedded and sectioned for alveolar counting. Parenchymal, alveolar, alveolar duct core air and interalveolar septal tissue volumes increased rapidly during the first two years with slowed growth from 2-7 years. The rate of change was greater in males than females. N_alv also showed consistent growth throughout the study, with increases in N_alv best predicted by increases in lung volume. However, mean alveolar volume showed little relationship with age, lung volume or body weight, but was larger in females and showed a greater size distribution than in males. Alveoli increase in number but not volume throughout postnatal development in rhesus monkeys.