Abstract: Objective To analyze the epidemiological characteristics of rabies in China from 1996 to 2009, explore the related factors and provide evidence for the prevention and control of rabies. Methods The analysis was conducted on the incidence data of rabies in China during this period by using Excel 2003 and MapInfo 7.0 software to describe the disease situation, the incidence trend and the time, regional and population distributions of the disease. Results A total of 22 060 rabies cases were reported during this period in the provinces in China except Tibet and Qinghai. The overall incidence was in increase. The first 6 provinces (autonomous region) reporting high case numbers were Guangxi, Hunan, Guizhou, Guangdong, Jiangxi and Hubei. Totally 14 920 cases were reported in these provinces, accounting for 67.63% of the total. The male to female ratio of the total rabies cases was 2.23 ∶ 1. The population most affected was farmers, followed by students and children outside child care settings, the cases in these population accounted for 88.52% of the total. The incidence peak occurred during summer-autumn. The post exposure prophylaxis rate was low. Conclusion It is necessary to control the price of rabies vaccine, strengthen the prevention and control of rabies in areas with high incidence and improve the management of dogs to stop the spread of rabies. This study was supported jointly by the Special Fund of Public Welfare (agriculture) Scientific Research (No.200803014) and Japanese Health Science Foundation (JHSF) (No.306300492)