Wavelength dispersive x-ray measurements on cobalt and krypton ions were presented to determine the ion charge state distribution (CSD) inside the electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma of the 14.5 GHz ECR ion source of the TU Dresden. For clearly from the parent diagram lines separating x-ray satellites a comparison between calculated wavelength shifts and measured ones allows it to deduce the ion CSD of the analyzed ions. In the case of small line shifts (lower ionization states) a comparison with x-ray spectra derived from plasma modeling is done. By approximating the modeled spectra to the measured ones a most probable ion CSD was derived. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.