Abstract:

The population distribution is the manifestation of population change in geographic space In order to insure rational distribution of population and coordinated development of population，resources，environment and society，it is important to identify the laws and determine the factors for population change by studying temporal and spatial evolution process of population distribution Based on data from year of 1982，1990，2000，and 2010，this paper used the methods of administrative divisions，circle direction，space interpolation and hot spot analysis to analyze spatial pattern evolution process of population in Nanjing for the recent 30 years from different levels of areas，counties，towns and grids Then，
six characteristics of population pattern evolution were summarized up.  （1）Population grew steadily，with rapid growth in the central city and slow growth in the suburban.（2）Population density decreased from the centre to the suburb，showing sphere variation feature.（3）The distribution of population was uneven，concentrating on central city，Metro and Development Zone.（4）The first degree of population enhanced，but the distribution pattern tended to be scattered.（5）The population distribution pointed to a centain direction，with the population size in the north being large and the fluctuation being significant.（6）The process of population urbanization accelerated，and suburbanization began to take shape Finally，it illustrated the mechanism of population distribution evolution in Nanjing from the perspectives of ecomonic development，geographical barrier，industrial upgrading and distribution adjustment，construction of metro and development zones，transport accessibility，the level of public services and facilities，work and living opportunity，urban spatial development policies and urban planning Then，the paper used regression model to prove its ideas The conclution is that the rapid developing economy，industrial upgrading，improved public services，more jobs，focusing developing policy in urban space manifested gathering role，and the construction of the Metro and Development Zone，convenient traffic condition，wider living space played diffusion roleOverall，the agglomeration effect was greater than the diffusion effect.