Abstract: Pressure index on cropland reflects the land carrying capacity. According to the model of the pressure index of cultivated land and the centre of gravity，the paper calculates the pressure indexes of cultivated land and the GDP barycentric coordinates in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region from 1980 to 2012. And then the dynamic changes of the indexes and that of spatial differences were analyzed using GIS. At last，the coupling relationship between the pressure indexes of cultivated land and GDP were analyzed by calculating the geographical relevance. The results show as follows：（1） the area of cultivated land decreased by 37.8×10⁴ hm² in the past 30 years，and the minimum per capita arable land area and the actual per capita arable land were decreasing，the pressure index of cultivated land decreases with the overall time，the values of index decreased from 1.08 in 1980 to 0.72 in 2012. These indicate that the cultivated land productivity greatly improved and the grain yield per hectare significantly increased. （2） the pressure indexes of cultivated land for different counties are quite different. The Northern Energy Development Zone has been the most stressful area of cultivated land in Ningxia，such as，Dawukou District of Shizuishan City，the values of index was up to 2.32 in 1980. Loess Hilly and Gully Region in southern and arid area in middle of Ningxia had the larger pressure of cultivated land before 2000，and then the pressures of cultivated obviously reduced. On the contr- ary，along the Yellow River counties have lower pressure in cropland. The forces are from the following some policies and measures，such as agricultural science and technology，water conservancy project and ecological immigrant. （3） the geographical relevance indicates that the change of the pressure of cultivated land and the GDP development are closely linked，and the spatial distribution was consistent. Also，the same trend for the centre of gravity of the pressure index of cultivated land and the GDP dynamically moved in spatial. From the analysis above，we thought that the change of pressure of cultivated land was influenced by the social economic development，agricultural science and technology，water conservancy project and ecological immigrant. In the future，Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region should develop ecological agriculture，strengthen the construction of basic agricultural facilities，especially construct irrigation and water conservancy and transform medium-low yield farmland，enhance the ability to resist drought of cultivated land，in order to improve land use level and reduce the pressure of cultivated land in Loess Hilly and Gully Region in the southern area and arid area in the middle of Ningxia.

Key words: pressure of cultivated land, economic development, centre of gravity, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region