The aims of this study is to investigate the dynamic change of vegetation coverage and its response to climate change during the past 20 years in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in order to provide theoretical foundation and scientific basis for understanding the regional ecological change trend and evaluating of ecological engineering. [Methods] Remote sensing data used in the study was Landsat TM in 1992, 2000, 2006 and 2012. Based on dimidiate pixel model, different vegetation indices for estimating vegetation coverage was calculated, and the dynamic changes of vegetation coverage were monitored. [Results] High vegetation cover was found in the northern and southern parts of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, in contrast, the lowest vegetation cover was found in the middle part the region. Vegetation cover increased significantly during past 20 years, with the low vegetation cover area decreased gradually while the middle- and high-vegetation cover area increased about 6 434 km~2. The average vegetation cover in the whole region increased by 6%. In particular, vegetation cover in the Yellow River irrigation area of Northern Ningxia and mountainous area of Southern Ningxia increased by a large margin. [Conclusion] The vegetation increase in the study area is benefit from the implementation of a series of vegetation protection and ecological restoration projects in recent years. The annual change in vegetation coverage is mainly caused by the variation of precipitation.