Abstract: The efficient identification and quantification of bacteria can be achieved by a high throughput quantitative analysis of bacterial characteristic protein and nucleic acid, and it can help the study of bacterial population function. Recently, combined with elemental labeling strategy, the application of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) on protein and nucleic acid detection has received lots of attention. ICP-MS has high sensitivity, wide linear range and small interference of biological substrate when detecting the protein, nucleic acid and other biomolecules. Therefore, ICP-MS method is suitable for multiplex detection of bacteria. In this article, the ICP-MS analysis methods of different bacterial characteristic targets were reviewed. The prospect of the developing tendency was anticipated to provide reference for the future research of bacterial analysis methods.