Dengue is an acute febrile illness of viral and reemerging origin that today stands out as one of the main public health problems in the world. Within this context, this study aims to describe the epidemiological profile of dengue in the state of Maranhão, between the years 2008 to 2012. It is a descriptive, retrospective study with quantitative design. The same was done according to the profile of individuals with a positive diagnosis for dengue, in the period from 2008 to 2012 in the state of Maranhão. Data were obtained from the website of the Notifiable Diseases System (SINAN). For the descriptive statistical analysis of the data, the SPSS 20.0 program was used. The data were arranged in tables for a better understanding of them. Within the studied period, it was observed that the majority of cases occurred in urban centers, corresponding to 34.42% of the total; 33.79% of the cases predominated in the age group of 20-39 years, configuring it as the age group with the highest prevalence of the disease; the main classification was hemorrhagic dengue, totaling 2% of cases; most of the people affected had low education, 14.87% of the people analyzed did not have complete elementary school; the most affected breed was brown, corresponding to 65.73% of the total; most cases (77.78%) evolved to cure; 53% of the people affected by the disease were female.