Abstract: Resources and environment are two important factors that restrict the development of a city, and regional resources and environment efficiency is one of the key indicators that reflects the comprehensive development level of a region. Therefore, analyzing the spatial-temporal pattern of regional resources and environment efficiency as well as its formation mechanism is not only helpful to understand the regional input-output process and benefit, but also provide reference for the relevant departments to formulate regional development planning and alleviate the contradiction between the local people and the land. This article analyzes spatial-temporal differentiation characteristics of resources and environment efficiency of cities in central China from 2005 to 2014 by using SBM-DEA model, and then discusses the underlying formation mechanism. The results indicate that: (1) the resources and environment efficiency in central China has shown a steady upward trend. (2) The resources and environment efficiency in capital cities along with the important node cities that closed to the Yangtze River and Beijing-Guangzhou axis is higher, while it is lower in the rest cities. (3) From the perspective of the coupling between input-output and resources and environment efficiency, about 75% cities in central China are in type Ⅰ, seldom cities are in type Ⅱ, and very few cities are in type Ⅲ～ⅩⅢ. In the past decade, the central China is commonly in the low-input, low-output and low-pollution development stage. The number of cities with higher resources and environment efficiency decreased first and then increase, the number of medium-efficient cities increases first and then stabilizes. The number of cities with lower resources and environment efficiency is in a decreasing trend. (4) Regional economic development level is playing a dominant role in promoting local resource and environmental efficiency, while energy consumption is an important factor that restrict the resource and environmental efficiency.