In order to expound the present situation and the potential risk of soil cadmium (Cd) in Guangxi, the paper collected and analyzed literatures about soil Cd in Guangxi which were published in recent 20 years. Based on the uniform criteria, 60 references were selected involving more than 30 areas in Guangxi, 7 090 samples. The paper summarized the distribution of soil Cd content distribution and the situation of soil Cd content exceeding the standard in Guangxi, so as to provide reference for relevant research, environmental policy making and environmental management. Results show that the soil Cd content in Guanxi ranges 0.040-244.1 mg·kg-1, with arithmetic mean and geometric mean 12.23 and 1.884 mg·kg-1, respectively. There were great differences in soil Cd concentration distribution between different functional areas. The average background soil Cd content in the research area is 0.153 mg·kg-1. The geometric mean of Cd content in agricultural soils and urban soils of non-mining areas were 0.467 and 0.320 mg·kg-1, respectively. The geometric mean of Cd content in the soil of mining area and in agricultural soil of mining area were 7.147 and 6.643 mg·kg-1, which were 46.71 and 43.42 times of the background soil Cd content. The majority of farmland soils are maintained at moderate pollution levels. Soils in several counties such as Nandan, Huanjiang, Jinchengjiang and Daxin were greatly affected by the pollution in mining area. There are areas not involved in the collected literatures. We recommend that control measures should be taken in Nandan, Jinchengjiang, Big Huanjiang, Yangshuo and Diaojiang areas, major investigations should be made in Baise Debao, Pingguo, Tiandong and Tianyang aluminum ore producing areas, and monitors on agricultural soil surrounding the mining area should be done. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]