Abstract. The low-energy level scheme of the N = 63 nucleus 101Sr has been obtained from a/3-decay study of l~ The u[53215/2 and u[41113/2 orbitals are well established as the ground state and a band head at 271.2keV, respectively. The general properties of the level scheme indicate a quadrupole deformation of/3 _~ 0.4, confirming the unique feature of saturation of deformation in N > 60 Sr isotopes. The energies of the K = 3/2 intraband transitions in the odd-neutron neighbours 99Sr61 and 1ol 8r63 are very similar. More generally, the identical bands at low spin in 98-1~ nuclei are correlated with the mass-independent moments of inertia in this region.