【Objective】This paper is to illustrate the status quo of soil lead contents and potential risk of soil lead in Guangxi. 【Method】By searching various important databases (China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Data, Vip, Science Direct, Web of Science, Springer, etc.) for papers on soil lead contents in Guangxi published at home and abroad since the 1990s. A total of 57 papers were retrieved involving 5 807 soil samples from 20 areas in Guangxi. As the areas covered varied in background and function, the soil samples were sorted into five groups (clean soil, soil from urban zone, soil from industrial and mining zone, soil from farmland in non-industrial and mining zone, and soil from farmland in industrial and mining zone). To make the data comparable with the prevailing criteria of the Standard for Soil Environment Quality (GB15618-1995), means it the target papers tallying with normal distribution or data acquired from the tables and/or figures in the papers were collated. 【Result】Results show that lead concentration in the soil of Guangxi varied in the range of 18.80 ~ 6 350 mg kg^-1, with geometric mean being 147.9 mg kg^-1 or 7.86 times as high as the background value. Obviously it was lower than Grade II Criterion of the Standard for Soil Environment Quality (GB15618-1995). The soil in the Siding lead-zinc mining area was 6 350 mg kg^-1 or the highest in lead content, with pollution accumulation index reaching up to 278.5. Soils in different function zones varied sharply in soil lead content distribution. The lead content in clean soil, soil in urban area, soil in industrial and mining zone, soil in farmland of non-industrial and mining zone and soil in farmland of industrial and mining zoneswas26.17, 32.88, 244.5, 42.93 and 347.6 mg kg^-1, respectively, or 1.391, 1.747, 12.99, 2.281 and 18.47 times, respectively, the background value in Guangxi. Soil lead content in clean soil, soil in urban area, and soil in farmland of non-industrial and mining zone was moderate in spatial variability, but in the other two groups, it was high in spatial variability. The coefficient of variation (CV) of the soil in Guangxi as a whole was 220.8%. Of the total soil samples, 23% were ＞ 1 in lead pollution index and about 7% fell into the category of “heavily polluted”. The heavily polluted soil samples were collected mainly from Nandan, Rongan, etc., where the mining activities were very intensive. 【Conclusion】Based on the distribution of lead mines and areas not covered by the survey, it is suggested that positive management measures be adopted in those highly polluted areas, such as Nandan, Jinchengjiang, Huanjiang, Rongan, Yangshuo, Chongzuo, etc., and further in-depth investigations be made of the areas relatively rich in lead and zinc resources, such as Daxin, Wuxuan, Cenxi and Hezhou.