Abstract: Objective The present study was designed to probe into dynamics of epidemic parotitis (mumps) from 2001 to 2003 in the city of Jining to provide information for the control of the epidemic．Methods A retrospective epidemiological investigation was conducted to under—stand the epidemiological features of the reported cases in the 3 consecutive years in the city of Jining．Results There were 1431 registered cases of mumps from 2001 to 2003 in the city，ac—counting for 12.70％ of the reported notifiable diseases．The disease may occur at any time of the year，but it has a distinct paaem of winter and spring seasonality．The incidence is significantly higher in rural area than in cities with a ratio of 1：0.41．Occurrence of multiple and fulminant epidemics of the disease was seen in nurseries，elementary schools and secondary schools．Of the 1431 cases of mumps，1127 cases had fever；1163 cases had swelling of the parofid gland；and 389 cases had swelling of the submaxillary gland．Complications occurred in 665 cases in all，the top three being encephalitis (372，55．94％)，meningitis (132，19.85％) and pancreatitis (95，14.29％)．The prevalence rate of the disease was higher in males than in females with the ratio being 2.59：1．And children under 15 years of age were predominantly affected．Accounting for 96.09％ of all the cases．With 78.34％ falling into the age group of 6—10 years and primary school students constituting 62.47％ of all the patients．Conclusion Greater priority should be placed on immune control of the disease for school age children of 6-10 years and rural popula—tion