利用2000年TM图像判读的中国土地利用矢量图提取全国农村居民点信息，分析了中国农村规模分布的基本特征。中国农村居民点密度呈现地带性差异，东部地区农村居民点密度较高，西部较低。农村居民点规模区域差异明显。北方大于南方，平原地区大于丘陵地区，经济发达地区大于经济欠发达地区；全国农村居民点规模较小，平均规模越小的地区集中在规模较小的居民点较多。全国农村居民点分布不均匀，孔隙度指数与农村居民点密度相关程度较高，农村居民点密度较高的地区，孔隙度指数较小，农村居民点分布较为均匀，距离较低，农村居民点密度较小的地区，孔隙度指数较大，农村居民点分布不均匀，距离较远。

The rural settlements of China are picked up from the land use vector map by interpreting the Thermatic Map of 2000.About 9.57*105rural seyylements are calculated by the GIS software.The rural settlements density in the eastern area is larger than provinces are higher while sparse in Tibet and Qinghai provinces. The average area of the rural settlement is 16.27hm2.The regional disparity of the rural,settlement scale is apparent.The average area of Northern China is biggee than that of Southern China.Those in the plain area is bigger than in the mountain area and those in the developed area is bigger than in the developing area. Chinese rural settlements are smaller and about 50.09% is between 2—9hm229.92% 10—21hm2，10.32% 22—34hm2，8.67% 35—104hm2and only 1% more than 104hm2.From the Lorenz curve we can see that about 80% of the rural settlements are 10—21hm2 and the number of 2—34hm2takes up about 90%.When the scale is 34hm2,the slope of the curve is lowest and nearly smooth.In Hunan province whose average acrage is smaller about 84.76% of the rural settlements are 10—21hm2.In Hebei province about 21.51% of the rural settlements are 10—21hm2.The expotential distribution is calculated and the relevant equation between the area and the numbei of settlements at least a hm2N(a)=ca-1.865 is obtained by the log regression.B of Hunan province is the largest in the selective cases and that of Guangdong is the smallest.Although B of Shandong and Guangdong provinces is of little difference,the number of the settlements between 2—10hm2.In North province-Shandong takes up 35.91% while that of South province-Guangdong takes up 35.91%.The spatial distribution of the rural settlements is measured by the lacunarity index.The lacunarity index correlates with the rural settlement dendity.In the area where the rural settlement density is high the lacunarity is low,the distribution is even and the gap batween the settlements is low.On the contrary,in the area that the rural settlement density is low the lacunarity is high,the distribution is uneven and the gap is high.