Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics and prognosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma(NHL) in the elderly. Methods Clinical data of 120 elderly patients with identified NHL admitted in our hospital from December 2002 to December 2012 were collected and retrospectively analyzed. Results Most of the cohort were at the age of 65 to 75 years, and had diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (55.0%) as the most common pathological type. The median time was 78d from the presentation of initial symptoms to diagnosis. When diagnosed, most patients (62.5%) had their Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) score from 0 to 1. Forty-five percentage of the patients suffered from comorbidities, with hypertension most common. Univariate analysis showed that the clinical stage, systemic symptoms, ECOG score, and international prognostic index (IPI) were correlated with overall survival time (P＜0.05). Conclusion Elderly NHL is characterized by multiple complications, atypical symptoms, difficulty to be diagnosed, but slower progression. Clinical stage, systemic symptoms, ECOG score and IPI are closely associated with overall survival time.