The performance of zirconia supported vanadia catalyst has been investigated for the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane. Vanadia loading was varied from 1.6 to 22.7 wt%, both below and well above monolayer coverage. The turnover frequency was highest for the catalyst with a vanadia surface density of 5 VOx/nm(2). The effect of vanadia loading on the redox behavior of the catalysts was investigated by temperature-programmed reduction and temperature-programmed oxidation. The specific activity increased with ease of reducibility of the catalyst. The extent of reduction and ease of reoxidizability of the catalysts were also found to depend on the surface vanadia structure and to influence the catalytic activity. The effect of vanadia loading on the basicity of the catalysts was also investigated.