Abstract: Studying the carbon emission of coal mining area helps better understand and draw up the related policies of rural carbon emission reduction. Taking Baishui County of Shaanxi Province as an example, carbon emission and its influence mechanism of rural household energy use in coal mining areas are quantitatively probed into by questionnaire survey and comparative analysis. The questionnaires, face to face in-depth interviews and case studies are conducted in Qixiu and Panjia villages, Xigu township in a coal mining area, and in Taixiang village of Yaohe township, Tangzhai village of Shoushui township, and Fuzhuo village of Leiya township which are non-coal mining area as well. Three hundred and twenty one valid question-naires were collected, among which 165 are from the former group and 156 are from the latter group. The data collected include population per household, crop production and yield, type and quantity of energy use, energy apparatus, household income, and so on. Case studies were conducted by weighing the consumption amount of crop straw, firewood and coal per house-hold per day or days. Annual energy supply and demand per household are calculated by the weight of crop straw, firewood and coal, and by the actual measured quantity of coal, electricity, biogas, etc. The results show that the carbon emission (1639.56 kg C/household) of rural household energy use in the coal mining area is less than that (1747.77 kg C/household) in the non-coal mining area. The former is mainly from coal, firewood and electricity, which con-tribute to more than 96% of the total energy used. What’s more, the proportion of carbon emission from coal is up to 61.72%. The latter is primarily from firewood, coal, crop residues and electricity, which is more decentralized and diversified. On the whole, the carbon emission of firewood takes the highest proportion (41.30%). In the meantime, the commercial energy consumption of household (1443.2 kgce/household) in the coal mining area is more than that (1014.47 kgce/household) in the non-coal mining area. Through the above, there is no indica-tion of increased carbon emission caused by commercialization of energy structure in the coal mining area. Further, it might be seen that the carbon emission is directly related to types and quantity of energy used, and emission coefficient as well. That is to say, the more usage of carbon emission energy, and the greater the emission coefficient, the larger the carbon emission is. As far as the influence mechanism of carbon emission is concerned, coal mining is the root cause and main inducement that lead to the differences of rural household energy use and carbon emission between coal mining area and non-coal mining area. At last, several measures are put forward, which include improving energy cookers and promoting thermal effect, increasing the consumption of biogas, and paying close attention to different emission effect between different regions.