Abstract: The paper chooses 21 cities and counties as the investigation areas in Shaanxi，Gansu，Ningxia，Qinghai and Xinjiang，conducting questionnaire survey and using questionnaire data.  This paper analyzes the characteristics of family carbon emissions in northwest China and conducts an empirical study on the main factors based on the extended STIRPAT model. The results show that there is a big difference in the per capita carbon emissions among different provinces，the household per capita carbon emissions are ranked from low values to high ones as follows：Gansu 1.72 t CO₂，Shaanxi 1.77 t CO₂，Ningxia 1.95 t CO₂，Xinjiang 2.09 t CO₂，Qinghai 2.47 t CO₂. There are significant differences among the provinces’ city and rural in household per capita carbon emissions，the household per capita carbon emission of city is lower than that of countryside. This paper analyses the skewness of household per capita carbon emission，the result shows that skewness coefficient is greater than 0，this implies that the number of the household per capita carbon emissions below the average level in the regions is more. The average household carbon emission intensity in northwest area is 343 t CO₂ per million Yuan RMB，there is a big difference in the household carbon emissions intensity of the investigation areas，it shows that the technical conditions of every province exists differences. It analyses the effective factors of household carbon emission in northwest China，based on Extended STIRPAT Model，it shows that there is a significant positive correlation between household carbon emissions and household carbon emissions intensity，household per capita income，family total population. There is also a positive correlation of household carbon emissions to age structure，but it is not significant. The impact of household carbon emissions intensity on household carbon emissions is the maximum，it shows that there is a closest relationship between technical factors and household carbon emission，so it demands introducing advanced technology，improving energy utilization mode，reducing carbon emissions，the impact of household per capita income on household carbon emissions is the second，the impact of family total population on household carbon emissions is the third，and the impact of age structure on household carbon emissions is the minimum. According to the above conclusions，this paper proposes some advices of reducing household carbon emissions in northwest area. Firstly，it demands to continue promoting the work of the optimization of energy structure，increasing carbon energy efficiency，expanding the proportion of renewable energy development and utilization. In order to improve energy efficiency，advanced energy technologies must be vigorously applied. Hydropower，wind，solar and biomass and other clean energy and renewable energy should be developed，establishing public opinion on orienting low carbon development，advocating green consumption concept. Secondly，various media platforms are used to popularize low carbon development concept，enhance public awareness of environmental protection and energy saving，advocate low carbon lifestyle，promote domestic low-carbon lifestyle，promote domestic low-carbon technologies，promote low carbon consumption patterns，guide the consumption mode developing of residents in the northwest along low carbon road. The third is to improve the life of the residents in northwest area，establish low carbon growth mechanism.

Key words: household carbon emissions, Extended STIRPAT Model, northwest China