Three identical membrane bioreactors (MBRs) were operated over 2 years at different sludge retention times (SRT) of 10, 40 d and no sludge withdrawal (NS), respectively, to elucidate and quantify the effect of SRT on the sludge characteristics and membrane fouling. The hydraulic retention times of these MBRs were controlled at 12 h. With increasing SRT, the sludge concentrations in the MBRs increased, whereas the ratio of volatile suspended solid to the total solid decreased, and the size of sludge granule diminished in the meantime. A higher sludge concentration at long SRT could maintain a better organic removal efficiency, and a longer SRT was propitious to the growth of nitrifiers. The performance of these MBRs for the removal of COD and NH4+-N did not change much with different SRTs. However, the bioactivity decreased as SRT increased. The measurements of specific oxygen uptake rates (SOUR) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probes testified that SOUR and the proportion of the bacteria-specific probe EUB338 in all DAPI-stainable bacteria decreased with increasing SRT. The concentrations of total organic carbon, protein, polysaccharides and soluble extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) in the mixed liquor supernatant decreased too with increasing SRT. The membrane fouling rate was higher at shorter SRT, and the highest fouling rate appeared at a SRT of 10 d. Both the sludge cake layer and gel layer had contribution to the fouling resistance, but the relative contribution of the gel layer decreased as SRT increased.