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Ningxia Helan County was taken as the research area in this paper to study the distribution characteristics and ecological risk of heavy metals in farmland soil in northwest China. 140 topsoil samples were collected aiming to analyze and measure the concentration of Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Cd and Pb belonging to heavy metal elements. The distributions, soil environment status and ecological risk of the seven heavy metals were studied by Nemerow pollution index and Håkanson potential ecological risk index methods. The results showed that concentrations of Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, As and Pb were all lower than the second-level of Environmental Quality Standard for Soils of China except that concentrations of Cd of 1.42% samples were appeared to exceed the standard. Compared with the background values, seven heavy metals of all samples showed different degree accumulation, in which Cd, Ni elements beyond the background value ratio reached 100% and 85%. Spatial distribution of the concentrations of the seven heavy metals had obvious accordance. The content of each element was evenly distributed. The high content of each element was concentrated in the central and eastern part of Helan County, which was related to human activities. The calculation results of single-factor pollution index showed that among the 140 soil samples, 0.71% of Cd were moderate contamination, 7.14% of Ni and 5% of As were slight clean, Cr, Cu, Zn, Pb of all samples were all clean. According to the individual potential ecological risk index（Ei r）of heavy metals, the average potential ecological risk index of Cd element was 97.68, which indicated that Cd had reached the serious risk level, becoming the main element of potential ecological risk. All in all, the quality of farmland soil in Helan County of Ningxia is good, but it is noteworthy that the concentration of Cd, Ni has a serious accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]