Abstract: The spatial distribution of rural residential area and its influencing factor is one of the main studies of rural settlements geography, and it is also an important field of GISRS applications. This paper selected the rural settlements of Pan County as the study area, analyzed the characteristics of spatial distribution and landscape pattern by using the method of kernel density estimation, coefficient variation (Cv), and landscape pattern index to examine the influence of topography and landforms factors. The results showed that: (1) The spatial distribution of rural residential area in Pan County had showed the pattern of “middlenorthwest intensive and southnortheast extensive”, which was the same distribution as the plain, valley and lowmid elevation in the study area. (2) By using the Point Pattern Analysis (PPA), the Cv value of the spatial distribution of rural residential area at village, township and the different topography classification) were greater than 64%, which belonging to the cluster distribution. (3) In various topographic factors, altitude, slope and relief amplitude are the key factors to influence the distribution of rural settlements; with the increasing of altitude, slope and relief amplitude, the land area, proportion and irregular degree of rural residential area showed increased first and then decreased; more than 75% of rural residential area were located on the region of average elevation, smaller relief amplitude (50-100 m), lower slope (5-15 degrees), south slope and small undulating mountain.