Abstract: The study uses the O-ring function, GIS and geographical detector methods to analyze the spatial distribution and influencing factors of villages in the Yellow River basin at different scales and in different geographical zones, and to provide theoretical support for the classification and treatment of different regions to promote high-quality and intensive rural development. The results show that:(1) Villages at the watershed scale show low density and small-scale clustering. The density of villages decreases from the third level to the first level of the river basin; the eastern and central economic zones are higher than the western economic zones; urban clusters are generally higher than non-urban clusters. (2) The density of villages in the provincial, municipal, and county units is strongly positively correlated, with villages clustered in HH in the first level of the river basin and LL in the second and third levels. The spatial distribution of villages in each province is clustered at small scales, and the three patterns of clustering, uniformity, and randomness alternate at large scales. (3) Mean annual temperature, annual precipitation, elevation and GDP are the main influencing factors on the spatial distribution of villages in the basin, and the interaction effects of natural, economic and location factors on the spatial distribution of villages are nonlinearly enhanced or bi-factorially enhanced.