The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of NaCl reduction (2.50 %, 2.25 %, 2.00 %, 1.75 %, and 1.50 %) on the physicochemical characteristics, microbial communities, flavor profile, and sensory characteristics of fermented sausage. The water activity increased with the reduction of the NaCl content from 2.50 % to 1.50 %, while the pH value, chewiness, and hardness decreased. High-throughput sequencing results showed that Staphylococcus saprophyticus, Staphylococcus kloosii, Latilactobacillus sakei, and Enterococcus pseudoavium were the dominant bacteria at the end of fermentation, and the 2.00 % NaCl treatment exhibits the highest bacterial diversity. A total of 32 volatile compounds were identified, of which there were 16 main volatile compounds. Sensory evaluation showed lower scores for chewiness, color, and flavor in sausages with less than 1.75 % NaCl. Furthermore, the correlation analysis showed that four bacterial species (Lb. sakei, S. saprophyticus, S. kloosii, and E. pseudoavium) were positively correlated with the major volatile compounds such as nonanal, ethyl propionate, ethyl hexanoate, and 1-hepten-3-one. Overall, it can be concluded that when NaCl content is reduced to less than 1.75 %, compensatory measures are needed to achieve better quality and flavor in fermented sausage. This study offers a thorough understanding of the association between bacterial communities and volatile flavors in low-salt fermented sausage.