Abstract: Construction Land is an important foundation of socio-economic activities. Construction land area and its changes are closely related to socio-economic development. It is of far-reaching significance to reveal construction land area changes and indluencing factors for tackling land use problems and future reform in land management of China. Based on land use data and socio-economic statistical data of China of the years 1996 and 2007, the relationship between the construction land area (CLA) of China and the socio-economic factors in 1996 and 2007 respectively, as well as the relationship between CLA changes and socio-economic factors during 1996-2007, was studied by stepwise linear regression analysis method. It is found that the relationships between CLA and socio-economic factors are different in 1996 and 2007. CLA has significant positive relationships with non-agricultural industrial production and the total population, whereas it has significant negative relationships with income per capita of urban residents in 1996. CLA has significant positive relationships only with the total population in 2007. The CLA change during 1996-2007 shows significant positive relationships with financial revenue change and urban population, whereas no significant relationship between CLA and other socio-economic factors was found. Moreover, the influence of financial revenue change on CLA change is larger than that of urban population on CLA change. The results reveal that CLA fitted relatively well for socio-economic activities in 1996 compared with 2007. The CLA change during 1996-2007 is driven more by the local government's land expropriation to increase local financial revenue and promote urbanization than the internal demand of local economic development. The results reveal that Chinese construction land area increase in the past decade is disadvantageous to the long-term socio-economic sustainable development of China. Chinese government should reform irrational financial regime and land expropriation institution to promote a harmonious relationship between construction land area expansion and socio-economic development.

Key words: China, construction land, land use, socio-economic factors, stepwise regression analysis