The present paper describes the fabrication of zinc ferrite (ZnFe2O4) nanofibres by electrospinning method using a solution that contained polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and Zn and Fe nitrates as alternative metal sources. The as spun and calcined ZnFe2O4/PVP composite samples were characterised by thermogravimetric differential thermal analysis, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared and SEM respectively. After calcination of the as spun ZnFe2O4/PVP composite nanofibres (fibre size of 344 +/- 76 nm in diameter) at 500, 600 and 700 degrees C in air for 2 h, the nature of nanofibres was changed due to the reorganisation of the ZnFe2O4 structure at high temperature, and ZnFe2O4 nanofibres of 58-75 nm in diameter having well developed spinel structure were successfully obtained. The crystal structure and morphology of the nanofibres were influenced by the calcination temperature. The calcined ZnFe2O4 samples have a structure of packed particles or crystallites with crystallite sizes of 19, 20 and 26 nm for the samples calcined at 500, 600 and 700 degrees C respectively. Room temperature magnetisation results showed a superparamagnetic behaviour of the ZnFe2O4 samples calcined at 500 and 600 degrees C and a paramagnetic behaviour of the ZnFe2O4 samples calcined at 700 degrees C. The specific magnetisation M-s values at 10 kOe are 2.34, 2.55 and 1.53 emu g(-1) for the samples of ZnFe2O4/PVP composite nanofibres calcined at 500, 600 and 700 degrees C respectively.