Abstract: 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.

Key words: education quality of population, spatial structure, evolution, average school year, average GDP