Territorial space is a multi-functional complex. The coordinated production-living-ecological space (PLES) effectively coordinates the man-land relationship, promotes regional sustainable development, and maximizes territorial space. How to build a high-quality national spatial layout and support system for development has become a hot topic of concern in all sectors of society. However, few studies have explored the coupling coordination considering the various production-living-ecological functions of land use type and its influencing factors of PLES at the county scale in China. To address the gap, based on the connotation of PLES theory, this study established a classification and evaluation system for PLES and analyzed the spatio-temporal characteristics, coupling coordination degree, spatial autocorrelation, and influencing factors of PLES in China from 2000 to 2020. The results are as follows: (1) The production space index and living space index in China showed a continuous increase tendency, while the ecological space index decreased continuously during the study period. The production space and living space were concentrated in the east of Hu Line, and the ecological space indexes in mountainous areas were significantly higher than those in plain areas during the study period. (2) The gravity centers of PLES all migrated to the west of China to different degrees during the study period. (3) From 2000 to 2020, the basically balanced category was the main coupling coordination type, and the number of seriously unbalanced categories accounted for the least. In the west of the Hu Line, the seriously unbalanced category was dominant, while in the east of the Hu Line were the moderately unbalanced categories and above. (4) During the study period, the low-low type was the main relationship type, widely distributed in western China, followed by the high-high type, mainly situated in the North China Plain, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Jianghan Plain, Chengdu Plain, Northeast China Plain, and some provincial capital cities. (5) Regression results showed that natural factors were the main reason restricting the coordinated development of PLES, and socioeconomic factors could effectively promote the coordinated development of PLES. Landscape pattern also significantly influenced the coordinated development of PLES, but varied greatly. The findings of this study can provide a scientific reference for the optimization of territorial space layout and the promotion of high-quality development of territorial space.

Urbanization is inevitably accompanied by drastic changes in regional land use and therefore presents an evident influence on ecosystems. Habitat quality (HQ) reflects the ability of a habitat to provide suitable conditions for the survival of an individual or population, and clarifying the interrelationships between urbanization level (UL) and HQ provides insights into sustainable urbanzation and ecosystems conservation. Much attention has focused on how urbanization related to HQ at multi-scales, but few studies have analyzed the interactive coercive relationships between UL and HQ on the global county level. To address this gap, we adopted the bivariate spatial autocorrelation and coupling coordination degree (CCD) model to determine their interactive coercive relationships at the county level globally. Results showed that the global average UL was 0.0807, 0.0838, and 0.0857 in 2000, 2010, and 2020, respectively, with a continuously increasing trend. The global average HQ was 0.6186, 0.6133, and 0.6111 for 2000, 2010, and 2020, reflecting opposite declining trends. The Moran’s I of population urbanization and HQ in 2000, 2010, and 2020 globally remained negative but showed an increasing trend, with values of −0.189, −0.228, and −0.254, respectively, while those of economic urbanization and HQ and land urbanization and HQ also remained negative and exhibited a similar increasing trend. The spatial autocorrelations for UL and HQ in different dimensions indicated that deserts and plateaus functioned as catchment areas with low UL and HQ. The CCD between UL and HQ in each county globally ranged from 0 to 0.70, while CCD between land urbanization and HQ was the most optimal at 0–0.90. The CCD between population urbanization and HQ was similar to that of economic urbanization in terms of spatial distribution. Nevertheless, the CCD of land urbanization in HQ exhibited the greatest degree of coordination among the three urbanization dimensions during the study period. These findings provided important support for sustainable urbanization and ecosystem protection globally.