A systematic study of osteoporotic (Group-A) and non-osteoporotic (Group-B) human (women 70 years old) bone samples from femoral heads is presented. The x-ray diffraction peak broadening analysis is applied to the mineral content of bone, hydroxyapatite, for a number of samples from each group. The Rietveld method (FULLPROF program) is used for the analysis of the anisotropic broadening observed in the hydroxyapatite Bragg peaks. From this analysis it is deduced, that the coherent diffracting domains are needle like, with the longer axis parallel to the c-axis of the hydroxyapatite hexagonal cell. The average size of domains along the needle axis is close to 250 Angstrom and the needle diameter is close to 100 Angstrom for the two groups. The needle like domains of group-B is slightly thinner than the corresponding ones of Group-A. TEM examination of the samples showed that the morphology of hydroxyapatite microcrystals is plate-like mainly. The majority of microcrystals contain twins and other stacking faults resulting in a needle like morphology of the comprising subgrains. Chemical analysis by the ICP-AES method gives a slightly higher content of Mg2+ in samples of group-B. The presence of Mg+2 ions, has been considered as a probable cause of the poor crystallinity observed in biological apatites. The analysis of the IR spectra and especially their characteristic absorption bands in the range 1600-800 cm(-1) reveals the presence of carbonate groups.