In this paper, the differences of soil fauna population and diversity between arable land and woodland in China were quantitatively studied by using meta-analysis. The meta-analysis results showed that the individual density (-55.74%), group number (-27.56%) and Shannon-Wiener diversity index (-24.51%) of soil fauna were significantly lower in arable land than in woodland in China, and the response of individual density was significantly different from that of group number and Shannon-Wiener diversity. The absolute values of response ratios of soil fauna abundance, group number and diversity between arable land and woodland where the average annual temperature was higher than 20℃ were significantly lower than that where the average annual temperature was less than 20℃, and there was no difference between arable land and woodland. In the region with annual precipitation of 400-800 mm, the absolute value of response ratio of soil fauna diversity between arable land and woodland is the largest, followed by the region with annual precipitation of over 800 mm and the minimum value in the region with annual precipitation of less than 400 mm (there is no difference between arable land and woodland). The Shannon-Wiener diversity index in paddy field was not different from that in woodland. The diversity of soil fauna of economic forest Shannon-Wiener was not different from that of arable land. In the subgroups with different soil fauna sizes, the absolute values of response ratios of macrofauna abundance, group number and diversity were significantly higher than that of microfauna, and the difference of group number is significant. The abundance of Acarina in arable land was significantly lower than that in woodland, but the abundance of Collembola in arable land was not different from that in woodland. Hymenoptera (-75.79%) and Dermaptera (102.97%) were the most obvious. The above results indicate that the response differences of soil fauna abundance and diversity under arable land and woodland in China are not only affected by regional climatic conditions, but also affected by the types of arable land and woodland, and individual size of soil fauna, and the responses of different species were different.