Abstract: Objective To understand the characteristics of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) patients registered in the infectious diseases recording & reporting system from 2001 to 2010. Methods PTB patients’ data from infectious diseases recording & reporting system were collected and analyzed. The time trend of onset, geographic and population distribution were mainly analyzed. Age, gender and occupation were mainly analyzed in population cha-racteristics. Results In 2001, 527 336 PTB cases were reported, and the TB incidence was 41.32/100 000(527 336/1 276 270 000). 163 055 were smear positive TB cases and the incidence of smear positive was 12.78/100 000(163 055/1 276 270 000). In 2010, 991 350 PTB cases were reported, and the TB incidence was 74.27/100 000(991 350/1 334 740 000). 456 677 were smear positive TB cases and the incidence of smear positive was 34.21/100 000(456 677/1 334 740 000). The TB incidence increased 79.7% and the incidence of smear positive increased 167.7% compared with those of 2001. The average PTB incidence in eastern,middle and western areas were 58.34/100 000, 76.67/100 000 and 92.97/100 000 respectively. The reported incidence rate showed a rising trend with the increase of age. The reported incidence rate in 65-, 25- and 15- age groups were 108.11/100 000,48.12/100 000 and 40.59/100 000 respectively in 2001, while those were 183.78/100 000, 76.22/100 000 and 75.72/100 000 respectively in 2010. In 2010 in 65- age group, the reported incidence rate of PTB was 285.40/100 000 in male and 91.34/100 000 in female. 60.31%-62.19% of the cases were farmers and herdsmen, 6.52%-8.57% were workers. Conclusion The incidence of PTB shows a rising trend year by year, and is higher in western area than middle and eastern areas, and higher in male than in female. Most of the reported cases are in middle and elder age group and are farmers and herdsmen. The key areas and focus groups are fixed by data analysis, so that special intervention measures can be taken.