OBJECTIVE To systematically analyze and summarize non-thyrogenous masses of the neck (NTMN) by consideration of new areas, a large sample size and multiple-aspect analysis.METHODS Our research involved 3,125 NTMN cases. We summarized the proportion of various NTMN and the distribution of the neck diseases based on the new international classification. The clinical traits such as sexual proportion and age, etc, were analyzed along with the unknown primary cervical metastatic carcinomas (UPCMC), multiple nodular NTMN and tubercular lymphadenitis.RESULTS There were 68 different diseases identified. Among all the NTMN, the percentage of metastatic carcinomas was 63.3%. The neck masses with a focus above the clavicle comprised 62.3% of the metastatic carcinomas whose focuses were clear. Moreover, other results almost supported the "rule of 80%". There was an obvious distribution of traits at every sub level. For example, there were 23 different diseases in level Ⅲ, of which the most common was lymphoma. UPCMC made up 12.3% of all metastatic carcinomas. Multiple NTMN were composed of lymphoma, metastatic carcinoma and tubercular lymphadenitis, etc. For tubercular lymphadenitis patients, the patients without tubercular toxic symptoms comprised 77.1% of all tubercular lymphadenitis patients.CONCLUSION NTMN are complex and various, with a definite distribution in each neck level. Data relating the sex ratio, UPCMC, multiple nodular NTMN and tubercular lymphadenitis to the clinical traits of NTMN will provide support for clinical applications.