diff --git a/Source/cmCTest.cxx b/Source/cmCTest.cxx
index 9a042c478..69ffb97ff 100644
--- a/Source/cmCTest.cxx
+++ b/Source/cmCTest.cxx
@@ -294,6 +294,7 @@ cmCTest::cmCTest()
 {
   this->LabelSummary           = true;
   this->ParallelLevel          = 1;
+  this->ParallelLevelSetInCli  = false;
   this->SubmitIndex            = 0;
   this->Failover               = false;
   this->BatchJobs              = false;
@@ -1999,11 +2000,13 @@ void cmCTest::HandleCommandLineArguments(size_t &i,
     i++;
     int plevel = atoi(args[i].c_str());
     this->SetParallelLevel(plevel);
+    this->ParallelLevelSetInCli = true;
     }
   else if(arg.find("-j") == 0)
     {
     int plevel = atoi(arg.substr(2).c_str());
     this->SetParallelLevel(plevel);
+    this->ParallelLevelSetInCli = true;
     }
 
   if(this->CheckArgument(arg, "--no-compress-output"))
@@ -2398,6 +2401,14 @@ int cmCTest::Run(std::vector<std::string> &args, std::string* output)
       }
     } // the close of the for argument loop
 
+  if (!this->ParallelLevelSetInCli)
+    {
+    if (const char *parallel = cmSystemTools::GetEnv("CTEST_PARALLEL_LEVEL"))
+      {
+      int plevel = atoi(parallel);
+      this->SetParallelLevel(plevel);
+      }
+    }
 
   // now what sould cmake do? if --build-and-test was specified then
   // we run the build and test handler and return
diff --git a/Source/cmCTest.h b/Source/cmCTest.h
index 587a6db51..5dd35ce41 100644
--- a/Source/cmCTest.h
+++ b/Source/cmCTest.h
@@ -485,6 +485,7 @@ private:
   int                     MaxTestNameWidth;
 
   int                     ParallelLevel;
+  bool                    ParallelLevelSetInCli;
 
   int                     CompatibilityMode;
 
diff --git a/Source/ctest.cxx b/Source/ctest.cxx
index 285ec170b..e767a1612 100644
--- a/Source/ctest.cxx
+++ b/Source/ctest.cxx
@@ -71,7 +71,8 @@ static const char * cmDocumentationOptions[][3] =
   {"-j <jobs>, --parallel <jobs>", "Run the tests in parallel using the"
    "given number of jobs.",
    "This option tells ctest to run the tests in parallel using given "
-   "number of jobs."},
+   "number of jobs.  This option can also be set by setting "
+   "the environment variable CTEST_PARALLEL_LEVEL."},
   {"-Q,--quiet", "Make ctest quiet.",
     "This option will suppress all the output. The output log file will "
     "still be generated if the --output-log is specified. Options such "