Fingerprint classification can provide an important indexing mechanism in a fingerprint database. An accurate and consistent classification can greatly reduce fingerprint matching time for large database. In the paper, by combining genetic algorithm and neural network is presented a fingerprint classification algorithm which is able to achieve an accurate classification. By inputting the global feature represented by directional image to three layer neural network trained by genetic algorithm, the fingerprints were classified into six categories: whorl, right loop, left loop, arch, double loop and undiscerning type successfully.