Abstract: 【Objective】An evaluation system for county-based cultivated land capacity in Qinling mountain areas was established to provide important theoretical basis for the rational planning of land use, maintaining ecological balance and ensuring the sustainable development and utilization of cultivated land resources.【Method】Taking Shangnan County, Shangluo City, Shaanxi Province as the research area, 12 factors including farmland infrastructure, irrigation level, soil structure, type, texture, topography, total nitrogen, available potassium, organic matter, available phosphorus, altitude and slope were selected. The current land use map, soil map and administrative map of Shangnan County were superposed to determine the evaluation unit by using ArcMap10.2 software. Analytic hierarchy process, expert experience and other methods were adopted to calculate the weight of the selected factors, and the cultivated land capacity of the study area was evaluated.【Result】The total cultivated land area of Shangnan County is 24 848.26 hm2, and the areas of cultivated land of Grade 1-5 are 2 286.97, 4 666.79, 8 733.13, 6 320.22 and 2 841.16 hm2, respectively. The cultivated land of Grade 1 and Grade 2 are mainly distributed in river valley, tableland and hilly areas, while the cultivated land of Grade 3 and Grade 4 are mainly distributed in shallow hilly areas and middle mountains. The soil surface texture of cultivated land of Grade 5 is loose, and the thickness of soil mass and humus layer are relatively low because of the large slope.【Conclusion】Irrigation capacity, geomorphic type, organic matter and slope are the main factors affecting the evaluation of cultivated land capacity in Shangnan County, therefore, the improvement of these factors is the main way to improve the cultivated land fertility in this area.