Soil erosion is a harmful environmental problem controlled by several factors. The Yellow River Basin has been considered to have the most serious soil erosion in the world. In the past decades, revegetation projects accompanying apparent climate changes in the Yellow River Basin have aroused great uncertainty regarding soil erosion. Therefore, identifying and mapping the spatial controlling factors would be of great help in adopting targeting strategies for soil erosion prevention. The spatial-temporal changes of soil erosion from 1985 to 2018 were estimated by using the RUSLE model and its spatial controlling factors were identified and mapped by the Mann-Kendall and Sen’s test. The results indicated that the slight erosion intensity accounted for 68.25% to 70.17% of the region from 1985 to 2018, and the average erosion modulus of the region was 2009.81 t∙km-2∙yr-1. The erosion modulus in the middle reach (3245. 56 t∙km-2∙yr-1) was significantly greater than in the lower (1084. 56 t∙km-2∙yr-1) and upper (1135. 90 t∙km-2∙yr-1) reaches. Vegetation coverage, rainfall, and land-use changes accounted for 42.07%, 52.23%, and 1.77%, respectively, of the soil erosion change areas. Specifically, 40.19% of the vegetation coverage increase area was responsible for the decrease in soil erosion that was located mainly in the middle and upper reaches, while 42.30% of the rainfall increase area contributed to the increase in soil erosion that was located mainly in the upper and lower reaches.