We have studied experimentally the propagation characteristics of fundamental dark spatial solitons on finite-width backgrounds and conpared with the result of numerical simulations. It was verified experimentally that the width of dark solitons decreased but that of background increased as the beam intensity increased. The refractive index change obtained from soliton constant, which is for infinite-width background, was smaller than that from Z-scan method. Numerical simulations of fundamental dark solitons on a finite-width backgrounds showed that the peak intensity of background, the width of dark soliton and the soliton constant varied with the propagation length. If the change of soliton constant on finite-width backgrounds was considered, the refractive index change was in good agreement with that from Z-scan method. ethod.