A method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving system information in a wireless communication system are disclosed. A method for receiving system information by a mobile station (MS) of a wireless communication system includes receiving a secondary superframe header (S-SFH) change cycle from a base station (BS), and receiving a primary superframe header information element (P-SFH IE) including a first field indicating a change count of a plurality of secondary superframe header subpacket information elements (S-SFH SP IEs) from the base station (BS). Once each of the plurality of S-SFH SP IEs is changed, each of the plurality of S-SFH SP IEs remains unchanged during one or more S-SFH change cycles.