Shrub encroachment is widespread in grassland ecosystems. Grazing is an important way for human beings to use grassland. By analyzing the changes of shrub populations and their adjacent soil nutrient contents in desert steppe under different stocking rates, the grazing tolerance characteristics of different shrub populations under grazing disturbance can be studied, which is of great significance for understanding the succession mechanism of plant communities in desert steppe. In this paper, Caragana microphylla, Ceratoides latens, Artemisia frigida and Kochia prostrata (hereinafter referred to as "shrub") were used as the research objects to explore the density, height, coverage and aboveground biomass (hereinafter referred to as "quantitative characteristic value") of each plant population under different stocking rates and its adjacent soil nutrients. The results showed that the quantitative characteristics of A. frigida decreased with the increase of stocking rate, the quantitative characteristics of other plant populations showed the maximum value in No grazing or Light grazing treatment, and the soil nutrient content adjacent different shrubs decreased with the increase of soil depth (P < 0.05). The total nitrogen content adjacent different shrubs decreased with the increase of stocking rate. The organic carbon content adjacent A. frigida was the highest in CK treatment, the content of available phosphorus adjacent C. microphylla was the highest in HG treatment, and the content of organic carbon and available phosphorus adjacent other shrubs was the highest in LG treatment. The relationship between the quantitative characteristics of shrub population and soil nutrients was as follows: soil organic carbon was positively correlated with the height, coverage and aboveground biomass of A. frigida and C. latens, and soil available phosphorus was significantly negatively correlated with the height and aboveground biomass of K. scoparia. Therefore, the stocking rate can affect the quantitative characteristic value of shrub plant population and its adjacent soil nutrient content.