[Objective] This study analyzed the characteristics and driving forces of land use in Zhaotong City of Yunnan Province in order to provide scientific basis for revealing the law of land use change in different scales.[Methods] This study calculated land resource information entropy and equilibrium degree

and analyzed the relevancy degrees among the total area of various types of land and factors of population

society

economy based on data of land use change

population and economics from 2009 to 2015 in Zhaotong City of Yunnan Province.[Results] ① The total area of agricultural land showed a decreasing trend

and the construction land area and other land use area showed an upward trend from 2009 to 2015 in Zhaotong City; ② The cultivated land area had the fastest decrease rate in Zhaotong City

and the comprehensive change degree of land was smaller than those of other regions. ③ The land use structure in Zhaotong City

and other counties gradually equilibrated and got stable

and the land use structures in Ludian and Qiaojia County were mostly obvious. ④ The first industry value

the tertiary industry value

population and urbanization rate were the main driving forces for the change of construction land; the second industry value was the primary driving force of agricultural land change in counties and districts; the gross domestic product(GDP) affected the changes of agricultural land

construction land and other land uses in different districts and counties in Zhaotong City.[Conclusion] The land use structure was affected by different factors such as population

society and economy. All kinds of land gradually developed towards equilibrium and stability in Zhaotong City of Yunnan Province.