Abstract: The soil seed bank is of great significance in the restoration of grassland vegetation. We investigated the density characteristics, species diversity, and similarity to the above-ground vegetation of the soil seed bank in the 0-15 cm soil layer under different restoration measures in a typical steppe in Ningxia. The restoration measures were F15 (exclosure for 15 years); S15 (contour trench, 15 years); Y15 (fish-scale pits, 15 years grassland), and F0 (long-term grazed grassland). The results showed that: 1) The soil seed bank was dominated by seeds of perennials. The F0 and S15 seed banks had the highest proportion of Gramineae seeds, and the Y15 and F15 seed banks had the highest proportion of Compositae seeds. 2) Compared with F0, the Y15, S15, and especially the F15 treatments had denser seed banks. The seed banks had different characteristics and seed pool densities. 3) Under the different restoration measures, the soil seed banks had the same degree of dominance, diversity, and evenness index, but the fish-scale pits treatment had a richer seed pool. The strongest similarity between the seed bank and existing vegetation was in the fish seed bank (0.81). 4) There were some differences between the soil seed bank and above-ground vegetation in terms of diversity, abundance, evenness, and dominance. The values of the similarity coefficient between the seed bank and above-ground vegetation were generally very low (0.37-0.55). The highest similarity between the seed bank and above-ground vegetation was in the fish-scale pits treatment; therefore, this was the best restoration measure for increasing the density and abundance of the soil seed bank in the loess hilly region of Ningxia.