随着社会经济的发展，人口文化素质对中国各地区社会经济发展的影响越来越大，因此，研究中国人口文化素质的空间格局及其演变具有重要的意义。文章从人均受教育年限的角度探讨了中国人口文化素质的空间格局及其演变，并对中国31个省份的人口文化素质和经济发展之间的关系进行了分类。结果显示：（1）中国人口文化素质的空间格局为：东北高、西南低，自东北向西南依次呈现高、中、低三级阶梯。（2）研究期内，中国各地区的人口文化素质都有了较大幅度的提高；在第一个时期（1982~1997年），人口文化素质提升幅度与初始水平相关；在第二个时期（1997~2005年），则与经济发展水平有关。（3）中国31个省份人口文化素质和经济发展之间的关系，可分为：协调发展型、素质滞后型、经济滞后型和双双滞后型4种类型。

With the development of social economy, the education quality of population has a stronger impact on the economic growth in China. As a result, it is of great significance to study the spatial structure and evolution of it. This paper discusses this problem from the angle of average school year of population in the 31 provinces; and compares it with the average GDP. The results show that: (1) Regional education quality of population is higher in northeast of china, and lower in southwest; three steps from high to middle to low can be found from northeast to southwest. (2) In the 23 years, education quality of people has been greatly improved; but the degrees are different in different provinces. The changing extent is related to the initial level in the first stage (from 1982 to 1997), and is related to the economic level in the second stage (from 1997 to 2005). (3)The relation between the education quality of population and economic development can be classified into four types: harmony-developed, education quality-lagged, economy-lagged, and both-lagged.