Objective To analyze the clinical characteristics of 1126 cases of malignant lymphoma in our hospital from 2005 to 2009. Methods Age, sex, pathological classification, onset locus and clinical staging of the malignant lymphoma were analyzed and summed up, based on the data of the malignant lymphoma patient information in hospital case database from 2005 to 2009 and excluded the cases as pathology was not sure and the repeated cases. Results A male:female ratio of malignant lymphoma in inpatient was 1.94:1. The majority of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) manifested in 20-40 years old, mixed cellularity (64.16 %) and nodular sclerosis (29.48%) was most common. The majority of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) manifested in 50-70 years old, the most common pathological classifications were diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (53.31 %), extranode nasal-type NK/T cell lymphoma (7.35 %), mantle cell lymphoma (6.40 %), B chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small B-cell lymphoma (4.30 %), anaplastic large cell lymphoma (4.09 %), precursor T cell lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma (3.88 %), peripheral T cell lymphoma but not otherwise specified (3.46 %), angioimmunoblastic lymphoma(3.04 %), follicular lymphoma(2.94 %), Burkitt lymphoma (2.52 %). The onset locus of both HL and NHL most often involved lymph nodes of the cervical region. Conclusion The gender, age, pathological classification, onset locus and clinical staging of malignant lymphoma were different between HL and NHL.