Abstract: The purpose of this study is to analysis the spatial-temporal pattern evolution and intensive use changes of rural residential land in Jiangsu province from 1987 to 2015.The research methods included land-use dynamic index, kernel density estimation, landscape pattern index and Intensity measurement index system. The results show that: 1) The rural residential land in Jiangsu province from 1987 to 2015 was in a continued expansion, and appears a tendency of increased with fluctuation, the data shows that the fastest speed of scale change in rural residential land happened in south Jiangsu and central Jiangsu. 2) From the situation of transfer-in and transfer-out in rural residential land, on one hand, Jiangsu province has a total of 5.863×105hm2of transfer-in rural residential land from 1987 to 2015, and 84.79% was came from arable land occupation. The ratio of rural residential land transfer from arable land ranks as: northern Jiangsu >southern Jiangsu> central Jiangsu. On the other hand, the rural residential land was decreased by 2.836×105 hm ², and 54.26% transformed to urban land, and 40.88%reclaimed to cropland. It was mainly reclaimed to cropland in northern Jiangsu and mainly transformed to urban land in south Jiangsu and central Jiangsu.3) From the perspective of the spatial distribution of rural residential land, the spatial differentiation of rural residential density is obvious, showing a multi-core clustering distribution, and the overall spatial pattern characteristics of west close to east sparse is presented. The average area of rural residential land patches in Jiangsu province from last 30 years, and the shape of patches tends to be regular, residential aggregation index also clustered. 4) From the results of intensive utilization evaluation, the intensity of rural settlements follows as: northern Jiangsu >central Jiangsu >southern Jiangsu, which is characterized by a gradient from high to low. In summary, the spatial pattern of rural residential land in Jiangsu Province tended to be regular and clustered, and the regional intensive utilization degree difference was obvious.We should promote land use system reform, optimize the allocation of resource space, and promote the integration of urban and rural development and rural revitalization according to regional differences.