Natural resources and economic resources not only play an important role in supporting the population of a nation or a region, but also are the foundation of the sustainable development in that area. In this paper, the relative resources carrying capacity is defined. Then, taking Jining city as the research area and Shandong Province as a reference, the author calculates and analyses the relative carrying capacity of natural resources, economic resources and the synthetic capacity of resources of Jining city from 1996 to 2008. The conclusions are drawn as follows: (1) the carrying capacity of all resources in Jining city is in the state of overload; (2) the contribution of natural resources to the synthetic capacity in Jining city is greater than that of others, which are the principal resources to support population. On this basis, the author points out the problems existing in the sustainable development of Jining city by analysis, such as the decline of the relative synthetic capacity, the reduction of the arable land, the dependence on coal and the irrational structure of the three major industries. Finally, the author also presents the competitive advantages in realizing sustainable development in Jining city, which include large area of plain, abundant mineral resources and nature-endowed superiority in developing tourism.