The characteristics of arable-land resources and utilization,the basic processes and regional differences of changes in arable-land areas were revealed according to the statistics data of arable-land areas from 1986 to 2002 and the detailed investigation of land use in the recent 5 years.Also,the driving mechanism for the changes in the cultivated land areas was discussed.The main conclusions were as follows.(1) There was a trend of obvious fluctuant decrease in arable-land areas in the past 20 odd years.The changes of arable-lands underwent the process from a gentle decrease to a sharp decrease,then to a slow decrease.(2) The decreased arable-lands were mainly inverted to project and mine lands,residential areas,various traffic lands and orchards.The increased arable-lands mainly came from the exploitation and reclamation of non-utilized lands and the arrangement and resumption of project and mine lands.(3) The economic development,population growth and policies were the dominant macro-driving factors for the decrease in cultivated land areas.The obvious break in the change process of arable-lands was related to the national macro-policies.The rapid decrease of cultivated land areas coincided in time with the overheated economic growth resulting from the direct investment in fixed assets.Spatial distribution of the decrease in arable-lands matched the differences in speed and scale of economic growth in different regions of the Longdong Loess Pleteau.