An experimental investigation was conducted to analyze the effects of EGR ratio on the combustion, exhaust emissions characteristics and size distributions of particulate matter in a single cylinder diesel engine with common-rail injection system fueled with biodiesel derived from soybean. In order to analyze the combustion, exhaust emissions and measurement of size distributions of particulate matter were carried out under various EGR ratio which was varied from 20~60% and the results were compared to those of results without EGR. The experimental results show that ignition delay was extended and maximum value of rate of heat release (ROHR) was decreased according to increasing of EGR ratio. In addition, oxidies of nitrogen ($NO_x$) emissions were reduced but soot emissions were increased under increasing of EGR ratio. However, under higher EGR ratio region, soot was slightly decreased. And then the particulate size distribution shows that high exhaust gas temperature restrain the formation of soluble organic fraction (SOF) which were beyond the accumulation mode (100~300nm) and lead to increase of nuclei mode particles.