The North Shaanxi Loess Plateau is the key area for implementing the Grain for Green Project (GFGP). An in-depth analysis of vegetation cover changes and driving factors in different periods since the de-farming in the North Shaanxi Loess Plateau has important guiding significance for promoting the regionally ecological environment construction. Although a large number of studies have been carried out on vegetation cover change in the North Shaanxi Loess Plateau, the researches mainly focus on the comparison of vegetation characteristics before and after the GFGP. In addition, relevant studies are mainly limited to administrative boundaries, vegetation zoning and other scales, ignoring the relationship between naturally geographical elements and vegetation-climate-human activities. In this paper, the North Shaanxi Loess Plateau was divided into the feature zones according to the climate, vegetation cover types and other naturally geographical elements on the basis of geographical division. Based on normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) extracted from the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) images data from 2000 to 2019, trend analysis,correlation analysis and residual analysis were used to study the spatial and temporal changes of vegetation coverage and its driving factors during the implementation of the two rounds of the GFGP (2000-2013, 2014-2019) in the North Shaanxi Loess Plateau, and to explore the differences of vegetation changes and driving factors in different periods.The results showed as follows: (1) From 2000 to 2019, each zone had an increasing trend in Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The decreasing order of the means of NDVI of the different zones was as follows: Earth-rock hilly forest area (Ⅵ zone)>Loess tableland (Ⅶ zone)>Loess-gullied area (Ⅴ zone)>The hilly-gully regions of Loess Plateau (Ⅳ zone)>Cover sand yellow hilly area (Ⅱ zone)>Loess wide valley hilly area (Ⅲ zone)>Wind-sand hilly area (Ⅰ zone). (2) During the past 20 years, the percentage of the North Shaanxi Loess Plateau with significantly improved vegetation was approximately 93.6%. During the implementation of second round of the GFGP, part vegetation in the IV, Ⅴ, VI, VII areas was degraded, and the vegetation improvement rate of the North Shaanxi Loess Plateau was 0.0125/a, which was lower than 0.0136/a in the first round of the project. (3) The vegetation change in the North Shaanxi Loess Plateau was the result of the combined action of climate changes and human activities. Human activity was the dominant factor causing vegetation change in the North Shaanxi Loess Plateau, while climatic factors were becoming more influential in vegetation change. The contribution rate of climate factors to vegetation change in each subzone during the implementation of second round of the GFGP was higher than that in the first round of the project. (4) On long time scales, the growth and distribution of vegetation were restricted by natural conditions such as moisture. Therefore, natural environment conditions should be considered in the process of vegetation restoration to achieve the sustainability of regional ecological restoration.