Microbial degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is the major channel for their decontamination from different environments. Aerobic and anaerobic biodegradations of PAHs in batch reactors with single or multiple bacterial strains have been intensively studied, but the cooperative mechanism of functional PAH-degrading populations at the community level under field conditions remains to be explored. We determined the composition of PAH-degrading populations in the bacterial community and PAHs in farmland and wasteland soils contaminated by coking plants using high-throughput sequencing and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), respectively. The results indicated that the PAH content of farmland was significantly lower than that of wasteland, which was attributed to the lower content of low molecular weight (LMW) PAHs and benzo [k]fluoranthene. The soil physicochemical properties were significantly different between farmland and wasteland. The naphthalene content was related to the soil organic carbon (SOC) and pH, while phenanthrene was related to the nitrate nitrogen (NO