Coal mining often causes surface subsidence, resulting in poor soil nutrient and water deficiency, soil desertification and soil erosion, which limits the growth of vegetation in the mining area. However, the arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AM fungi) can promote the growth of vegetation. We took Xanthoceras sorbifolia as host plant and studied the effect of inoculated and non-inoculated AM fungi on plant growth and soil properties in the coal mining subsidence area by the method of in-situ field monitoring and lab analysis. The results showed that compared with the treatment of non-inoculated AM fungi, inoculation of AM fungi significantly increased the mycorrhizal infection rate and the hyphal density of outside the roots. The plant height, crown height, and ground diameter of X. sorbifolia inoculation with AM fungi in July increased by 31.89%, 23.07% and 9.89%, respectively. Compared with the treatment of non-inoculated AM fungi, the contents of total nitrogen, available nitrogen and soil organic carbon in rhizosphere soil treated with AM fungi in September increased by 0.29 g/kg, 13.0 mg/kg and 1.4 g/kg, respectively. Inoculation with AM fungi significantly increased the water content of the rhizosphere soil, total glomalin and easily extracted glomalin, while the content of available phosphorus and available potassium decreased significantly. Correlation analysis showed that there was a synergistic feedback effect between mycorrhizal infection rate, the hyphal density of outside roots and rhizosphere soil physical and chemical properties. Thus, the inoculation of AM fungi promoted the growth of X. sorbifolia and soil improvement in the coal mining subsidence area, which is of great significance to soil and water conservation, to maintain the stability and sustainability of the ecosystem in the mining area.