North-south asymmetry has been a significant aspect exhibited by various solar activity parameters of the Sun. In this work we have statistically analyzed soft X-ray (SXR) flares during the period Jan 1981 to Dec 2016 for four different solar cycles (SCs) covering cycles 21, 22, 23 and 24. We have presented the class wise (B, C, M & X) variation of SXR flares for these SCs. SXR flare activity is lowest in solar cycle 24 as compared to cycles 22 and 23. It is shown that M class activity continuously decreased from SC 21 to 24. X and C class flares show higher activity in SC 22 and 23 as compared to SC 24, whereas B class flare activity is higher for SC 23. We have also studied the north-south (N-S) asymmetry of SXR flares for SCs 21, 22, 23 and 24. Our study revealed that during SCs 21, 22 and 23 the flare activity was more pronounced in the Southern hemisphere. However, the flare activity was equally distributed between the northern and southern hemispheres for SC 24