Global climate change affects all aspects of human society, especially agricultural and animal husbandry production. Northwest China has detrimentally affected by the climatic variations due to its high exposure to extreme climatic events. A number of studies have reported on agro-pastoralists' perceptions, adaptation and mitigation of climate change, but the current knowledge of agro-pastoralists' perceptions of climate change in China is insufficient. To fill this research gap, this study aims to investigate the cognition level of agro-pastoralists in Northwest China on climate change and related factors. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire based on household surveys of 554 study participants in four counties in Gansu Province, China. Raw data were collected using stratified random sampling. A probit model was used to analyze the respondents' understanding of climate change and its related socio-economic and demographic variables. Our results show that more than 70% of agro-pastoralists are perception of the changes of temperature and precipitation. Socioeconomic and demographic variables such as gender, farming experience, education level, cultivated land size, agricultural income, livestock, village cadre experience, access to weather information of agro-pastoralists are pertinently related to agro-pastoralists' awareness of climate change. Farming experience, education level, household size, grassland size, agricultural income, association membership, village cadre experience has a high impact on agro-pastoralists' adaptation to climate change. The results of this study will help guide government agencies and decision makers, and help arid and semi-arid areas to build sustainable adaptation measures under the framework of climate change.